United Health Foundation supports and encourages the pluralistic engagement of the nation's private and public resources to improve the health of our nation. That is why we are pleased to again partner with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention to present the 2007 Edition of America's Health Rankings™.  The Foundation encourages people to use the information found in this report to positively influence their own health and the overall health of their community, their state and the nation.  

This year's report again shows that the nation is not significantly improving its overall health. We continue to fall short of our potential and we fare poorly in comparison to many other nations.  

There is no better example of the confluence of factors that contributes to health, as reported on these pages, than cardiovascular disease. As a nation we have made extraordinary progress reducing cardiovascular deaths as a result of aggressive prevention and innovative clinical intervention. Despite these gains, however, cardiovascular disease continues to be the number one killer in the U.S. and a costly disease to treat. Persistent and increased risk factors-such as tobacco use, unhealthy eating and physical inactivity-make it unlikely that we will maintain this reduction in cardiovascular deaths over time.