The Department of Public Health (DPH) released its behavioral risk factor surveillance survey (BRFSS), a telephone survey that polls up to 8,000 people statewide per year.
The results show that while Massachusetts ranks relatively high in healthy behaviors such as cholesterol checks and breast cancer screening, and relatively low in many risk behaviors such as smoking and obesity, income and ethnicity disparities persist. For example, the percentage of Massachusetts’s residents with diabetes is at 9% for those with incomes below $25,000/year and decreases incrementally for a low of 3% for those with incomes above $75,000/year. 
The results are broken down by gender, ethnicity, and/or region.

Click here for a presentation on the September 2003 BRFSS survey results.

 For more Public Health data and information, please visit the Boston Indicators 2002 Public Health home page.