Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Louisiana sank to the bottom of the rankings in an annual health survey of U.S. states, which found almost one in three Bayou State residents is obese.

Louisianans as a whole are also more likely to succumb to cancer, die before 75 or be killed on the job than people in almost any other state, said a report today from the United Health Foundation, which is tied to health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc.

``Obesity is a key reason for our low ranking, and poverty and bad diets are fueling the problem,'' said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman for Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals. ``Here, we tend to fry just about everything, from chicken to fish to you name it.''

The state's population has been ranked the most or second- most unhealthy every year since the survey began in 1990, underscoring broader problems in the Southeast, which the report calls the least healthy U.S. region.

Mississippi, last year's worst-ranking state, rose one spot to No. 49 this year, and was followed by South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Some 31 percent of Louisiana's population is classified as obese, the nation's highest rate. In 1990, the state's prevalence of obesity was just 12 percent, the survey said.

Southeast at Bottom

With the exception of South Carolina, the five Southeast states fall in the bottom 20 percent for cardiovascular deaths, averaging 381 fatalities per 100,000 residents.

The state with the least cardiovascular deaths was Minnesota, with 240 fatalities per 100,0000 residents. The U.S. median is 326 deaths, according to the survey.

Minnesota maintained its ranking as having the healthiest residents overall, a position it's held for 11 of the past 17 years. Vermont was No. 2, followed by New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut.

The survey uses a number of yardsticks to measure the health of state populations. They include prevalence of smoking, vehicle deaths, violent crime rates, and infant mortality rates as reported by state health departments.

As a whole, the nation's health improved 0.3 percent last year, a gain that's been repeated for each of the past six years to create an 18.7 percent improvement since 1990, the survey said.

While the trend is moving in the right direction, it has slowed from an improvement of 1.5 percent annually in the 1990s. The survey authors list smoking and obesity as two key elements damping gains.

``In the last year alone, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 6 percent, which will result in secondary disease consequences in years to come,'' the researchers said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 5, 2006 06:01 EST