Promising Trends in Children’s Health Status
Kidsdata is excited to introduce its newest topic, Health Status. Check out self- and parent-reported data on whether a child’s health status is fair/poor, good, or excellent/very good. The data are available overall, by race/ethnicity, and by family income level for California and for counties.
Health status during childhood sets young people on a path toward good or poor health in adulthood. In California, children’s health status has improved overall and for each race/ethnicity for which we have data since 2001. Most notably, 68 percent of Hispanic/Latino children were in excellent or very good health in 2013-2014 compared with 55 percent in 2001. In addition, the gaps between racial/ethnic groups narrowed during this time period.
Policy Implications
Healthy young people tend to become healthier and more educated adults who are better able to contribute to society than those who struggle with health problems, which means a stronger workforce and reduced strain on public service systems. Nurturing California’s children today may improve the state’s future social and economic well being.
Efforts to improve children’s health can be strengthened by recognizing the wide range of influences on children’s lives including social, economic, environmental, biological, and behavioral influences. Policies and programs that could improve children’s health include implementing cross-sector strategies that go beyond traditional health care and ensuring that every child has access to family-centered, culturally-competent, and coordinated health care within a “medical home.”
See additional policy implications »
We still need your input!
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Posted by kidsdata.org
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