Kidsdata: Going Beyond 2013 County Health Rankings To Find Health Data On California Kids

Today, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is releasing its 2013 County Health Rankings, which examine the health of adults and children in the nation’s 3,141 counties on such measures as insurance coverage, obesity, exercise, community safety and smoking.

This year’s rankings show that rates of premature deaths have dropped to their lowest level in two decades. Nevertheless, residents of the nation’s unhealthiest counties have premature death rates that are twice the rates of those in the healthiest counties. Violent crime has dropped 50 percent in the past 20 years, but one in five children live in poverty, imperiling their health.

Here’s how the RWJ Foundation describes the goals for its rankings:

We know that much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor’s office—in our schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps help communities create solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities, focusing on specific factors that we know affect health, such as education and income. Having health insurance and quality health care are important to our health, but we need leadership and action beyond health care.

Here at kidsdata.org, we applaud the RWJ Foundation and its research partner, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, for drawing national attention to the complex economic, environmental, behavioral and social factors that influence Americans’ health.

Kidsdata.org has additional information on California children’s and adolescents’ health – not included in the County Health Rankings – that nonprofit organizations, children’s advocates and policymakers can use in their work, including:

* Statewide data on children with special health care needs: demographics, conditions, quality of care and more.

* Children’s emotional and behavioral health data, including tobacco and alcohol use, suicide rates, school connectedness, and other measures available for counties and local school districts.

* Child safety and welfare statistics, including bullying, child abuse and neglect, and foster care at the local level.

We invite you to explore our data and welcome your questions and comments!

We’re also offering a free, in-person training session on how to use kidsdata.org in San Francisco on April 9, 2013. For more information, click here.

Please contact Barbara Feder Ostrov, communications officer, at [email protected] or 650-721-6044 or share in the comments section below.

Image credit: Calsidyrose via Flickr

Posted by Barbara Feder Ostrov

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