Oregon Public Broadcasting

The fourth national report card on women's health was released Wednesday.  The study from the National Women's Law Center and Oregon Health and Science University looks at existing health policies and sets benchmarks based on obesity, life expectancy and access to health care.

Oregon rates 14th nationally, but received an overall unsatisfactory rating.

Michelle Berlin of OHSU was the lead author of the study.  Berlin says Oregon improved in only 3 of the study's 27 health benchmarks.  Increasing obesity across the state is of particular concern.

Michelle Berlin: "The implications for that are enormous.  We're seeing certainly that rates of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are on the rise throughout the United States and obesity is clearly linked to those."

Berlin says focusing on prevention of obesity should be a nation-wide priority.  She said one positive trend nationally is increased access and insurance coverage for contraceptives.