This is Nurse Appreciation Week, a time to celebrate nurses in all arenas – emergency rooms, schools, homeless shelters, and many others – for their dedication to improving the health and well being of children and families across the country.

Nurses connect school children to health care resources and, in some cases, provide basic health care and screenings. Nurses work to ensure that children are healthy and have the support they need to be successful learners. In California, there is one school nurse for every 2,035 students, according to 2009 data.

See data on kidsdata.org about pupil support personnel >>

Posted by kidsdata.org

Following are some recent news highlights about children and families, along with related data from kidsdata.org:

Obesity (see related data):

• Report: Heart Health Has Become Increasingly Problematic for American Children
  (HealthDay, 5/4/12, by Gordon)
• First Grade Students More Inclined to Bully Overweight and Obese Students, Study Shows
  (Health.com, 4/24/12, by Storrs)

• Obesity Rates for Children Ages Six and Under Steadily Decreasing, Studies Show
  (Reuters, 4/24/12, by Norton)

• Study: Overweight Teens Struggle to Control Diabetes
  (CBS, 4/30/12, by Chang)

• Low-Income Mothers May Overfeed Their Infants, Study Shows
  (MSN, 4/28/12)

Injuries (see related data):

• Accidental Death Rates Decline Among Infants, But Rates Among Teens and Young Adults Remain Steady, Reports Show
  (USA Today, 4/24/12, by Healy)

• Child Concussion Diagnoses Double, ER Data Show
  (USA Today, 4/27/12, Tanner)

Maternal Health (see related data):

• Number of Babies Born to Painkiller-Addicted Moms Rising, Study Shows
  (Reuters, 5/1/12, by Pittman)

• Study: Above-Average Weight and Blood Pressure in Mothers Poses Potential Risk to Pregnancy and Newborns
  (WSJ, 4/12/12)

• Older Moms Increasingly More Likely to Have More than One Child, Study Finds
  (MSNBC, 4/12/12, by Rubin)

• Study: Exposure to Air Pollution During Pregnancy May Increase Obesity Risk for Children
  (Time, 4/17/12, by Park)

Posted by kidsdata.org

Today is World Asthma Awareness Day, which marks the beginning of Asthma Awareness Month. Also, this week is National Air Quality Awareness Week, which has been declared by the National Weather Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to urge Americans to consider the impact of their actions on air quality and pollution.

Recent studies have shown that environmental pollutants put children at risk of developing serious illnesses. Children are especially vulnerable to toxic substances, as their systems are more fragile and their skin is more permeable. Air pollution from traffic, lead in old paints and plastic, pesticides, and chemical contaminants in tap water potentially can harm children’s health by causing respiratory disease (e.g., asthma), cognitive defects (e.g., mental retardation), and cancer.

Learn more about how air pollution affects children>>

Sites like AIRNow help to heighten air quality awareness by tracking the various types of pollution around the country and color coding regions by severity of the pollution.

See related data on kidsdata.org:

• Air Quality
• Asthma
• Environmental Health

Posted by kidsdata.org

The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has created a useful tool that ranks counties across the U.S. by various health measures and factors that influence health. The project tracks a wide variety of indicators that are linked to health, such as education, income, and health care, and also offers information on strategies to create healthier places to live.

See where your California county ranks in terms of health factors and health outcomes >>

In California, the five counties with the highest overall ratings are as follows:

1. Marin

2. Santa Clara

3. Placer

4. San Mateo

5. San Benito

Kidsdata.org offers several indicators of health data for all counties in California. Find your county on our regions page. 

Posted by Stacey Angeles

This month is National Minority Health Awareness Month, which offers an opportunity for government and advocacy organizations to focus on improving health disparities.

Kidsdata offers several indicators broken down by race/ethnicity, including High School Dropouts, Teen Birth Rate, Weight, and Children in Poverty.

We also have printable factsheets for the following groups:

• Latino Children in California
• Asian/Asian American Children in California
• African American Children in California
• Native American Children in California
• Filipino Children in California
• Multiracial Children in California
• Pacific Islander Children in California

Posted by kidsdata.org

The following are some recent news highlights about children and families, along with related data from kidsdata.org:

Early Childhood (see related data)

• Nearly Half of All Pre-Schoolers Don’t Play Outside, Study Shows
(CNN, 4/2/12, by Caruso)

• Survey: More Parents Following Updated Car Seat Guidelines
(Chicago Tribune, 3/22/12, by Newman)

• Report Reveals Diminishing State Funding for Government-Subsidized Preschools
(SJ Mercury, 4/10/12, by Murphy)

Immunizations (see related data)

• Number of Vaccinated Kids in California on the Decline, Study Shows
(HealthyCal.org, 3/28/12, by Guzik)

Special Health Care Needs (see related data)

• Study: Social and Communication Skills in Autistic Children May Improve Over Time
(Reuters, 4/2/12, by Pittman)

• Studies Examine Genetic Complexity of Autism
(Time, 4/5/12, by Szalavitz)

Obesity (see related data)

• Two Genes Show Strong Association with Childhood Obesity, Researchers Say
(CBS News, 4/9/12, by Jaslow)

• Survey: Likely Voters Cite Poor Diet and Lack of Exercise as Greatest Risks to Child Health
(California Healthline, 4/4/12)

Posted by Stacey Angeles

It’s National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and in honor of this observance, we’re highlighting some of the important data and information on kidsdata.org related to this topic.

• Child Welfare in California: A Summary of Recent Data
• Child Abuse and Neglect Research and Links
• Child Abuse and Neglect Policy Implications
• In 2009, neglect – not physical, emotional, or sexual abuse – accounted for the majority of substantiated child abuse/neglect cases in California.
• More than 3 times out of 4 in California, neglect was the reason that children were removed from their homes and put into the foster care system in 2007-2009.

According to the 2008 Child Welfare Information Gateway report on long term consequences of child abuse and neglect, children who are abused or neglected, including those who witness domestic violence, often exhibit emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems, such as anxiety, depression, suicidal behavior, difficulty in school, use of alcohol and other drugs, and early sexual activity. Abuse, particularly experienced when children are young, causes stress that can disrupt early brain and physical development, placing mistreated young children at higher risk for health problems as adults. Children who are abused or neglected also are more likely to repeat the cycle of violence by entering into violent relationships as teens and adults or abusing their own children. An estimated 763,000 U.S. children were victims of maltreatment in 2009, and approximately 1,770 children died from abuse or neglect in 2008.

Posted by Stacey Angeles

You may have seen today’s New York Times article highlighting the rise in autism diagnoses. In light of this news, we are republishing this post on the growing number of autism diagnoses.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Originally posted Feb. 3, 2011

A few years ago, we published an issue brief, “Autism Diagnoses on the Rise,” that explored the steep climb in autism diagnoses across California. So what does the trend look like these days? About the same, it turns out. Newly released data from the California Department of Education show that the growth in special education students diagnosed with autism continues unabated, from roughly 17,500 California public school students in 2002 to nearly 60,000 in 2010.

As you dig deeper, however, some other trends emerge. First, while students with autism comprise a greater share of all special education students in California compared to roughly a decade ago (from about 3% of all special education students in ’02 to about 9% in ’10), numbers are on the rise for another diagnosis, too — “other health impairment.” The California Department of Education defines this as “having limited strength, vitality or alertness, due to chronic or acute health problems, such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes.” Meanwhile, the percent of special education students diagnosed with a learning disability has dropped considerably, from 52% of all special education students in 2002 to 42% in 2010.

This Google animation, which uses data from kidsdata.org indicators, shows the relative growth/decrease in special education enrollments by the three conditions noted above. First click on the bar graph icon in the top-right, then press play in the bottom left.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Despite the understandable desire for up-to-the-minute information on childhood poverty, it can take time for such data to be reported. The recently released 2010 childhood poverty data unfortunately confirm what many anticipated – that more than one in five children (22%) statewide lived below the federal poverty level in 2010 ($22,113 for a family of two adults and two kids in ’10), compared to 17% in 2007.

Today, the First 5 Association, First 5s of Southern California, HealthyCity, and our foundation are releasing the results of a project to communicate the broad impact that poverty can have on a young child’s health and well being. The release provides related data that describe how children are faring in Southern California.

With poverty rates steadily climbing across California, this issue is becoming increasingly significant, even with talk of an economic recovery. And given the high cost of living in many areas of California, a family can earn twice the poverty level and still suffer the effects of poverty. So it’s particularly concerning that about one half of California children (46%) live in families earning less than two times the federal poverty level (roughly $44,000 for a family of four).

How does poverty exert such a strong influence on child well being? See these sections of the just-launched website to learn more.

• Children in poverty are more likely to experience abuse and neglect.
• Children in poverty are less likely to obtain dental care.
• Poverty can have a long-term, negative impact on the educational achievement of children.
• Research links poverty with a greater likelihood of asthma in children.
• Low-income women are less likely to receive first trimester prenatal care.
• And poverty can exacerbate factors associated with childhood obesity.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Our foundation enjoyed attending and sponsoring last week’s California School Health Centers Association conference in Sacramento.  The event advocated for the creation of school-based health centers that can address multiple issues – physical and mental health, dental and vision services, etc. — with the understanding that students can achieve more academically when they are healthy.

Attendees included health professionals that work directly with children in the schools, as well as in district offices, and counties and regions across California were represented at the event, from Truckee to Los Angeles to the Bay Area.

In California, there were 183 school health centers (or school-linked health centers) in 2011, compared to 153 in 2009. See more data on school health centers in California>>

Posted by kidsdata.org