Kidsdata.org recently added a new indicator of children’s health: Rate of Overweight/Obese Children in Low-Income Public Health Programs.

These data are collected from participants in the Child Health and Disability Prevention Program, which serves Medi-Cal recipients and children/youth with family incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level. The data represent approximately 22% of low-income children in California.

Because the population captured is so specific, it is important that users do not over-generalize their conclusions. When looking at this particular population of kids, however, results indicate that in 2009, among California children served by low-income public health programs, about 42% 5-to-19 year-olds, and 33% of 2-to-4 year-olds, were overweight or obese. Although these rates were similar to those in previous years, they indicate persistently high levels of weight-related health risk. Specifically, children who are overweight or obese are at risk of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, and type 2 diabetes, among other serious physical problems. Type 2 diabetes is of particular concern, as it now is being found in children at increasing rates. Overweight and obese children also are more likely to have weight problems in adulthood.

On kidsdata.org, measures of weight also include the percentage of public school students in grades 5, 7, and 9 at a healthy weight (that is, students who are neither overweight nor underweight); these indicators are offered at a school district level by grade, race/ethnicity, and gender. Kidsdata.org also has related data on physical fitness, including percentages of students meeting all fitness and aerobic endurance standards.

Later this year, we should have more data on children’s weight through a partnership with the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which is analyzing California child overweight rates by city and county.

As we bolster our offerings of data related to children’s weight, we also are interested in other sources of reliable weight/obesity data. If you know of any, please contact us at [email protected].

Posted by kidsdata.org

Tomorrow marks the June 15^th deadline to pass the California state budget.  Try your hand at balancing the state budget, using the newly updated California Budget Challenge

Created by the nonpartisan organization Next 10, the Challenge is an online game that allows users to build a state budget based on individual “values and vision.” It also serves to educate voters about the numerous policy choices our legislators must make. For each major budget decision (prison cuts, increases in per pupil spending, gas taxes, etc.), the Challenge offers background information, as well as the arguments for and against each cut or expenditure.  After each decision you make, you also can see how fellow Californians chose from the many budget options.

Are you hoping California will allocate more funding for kids and families? More money for schools, parks, or health programs? See data from kidsdata.org on health care, education, poverty and more for California children to help inform and support your funding decisions — then leave a comment to share your thoughts and budget results with us and our readers!

To access the California Budget Challenge and other resources, visit their website at http://www.next10.org/next10/programs/budget_challenge.html#

Posted by kidsdata.org

Do you ever wish for something you can’t have?

In the data world, we have a lot of unfulfilled wishes because the data we need – or at the granularity that we need it – often just aren’t available, at least not yet. So, to address our goal of providing users with the most helpful data, we regularly seek suggestions for our data “wish list” for kidsdata.org. We’ve already added a variety of indicators that users have suggested, such as data on depression, school connectedness, and family structure. Ideas for new data arise from comments on this blog, and from conversations we have with users around the state, from Shasta to San Diego.

Leave a comment telling us what data you’d like to see.

Posted by kidsdata.org

If you follow this blog, or received our recent advisory, you probably know we just updated physical fitness data on kidsdata.org. Related updates to weight data are coming very soon.

You can be among the first to learn about how you can use these updated data — and get a personal tour of kidsdata.org’s features — by joining our upcoming webinar, “How to Incorporate the Latest Fitness and Weight Data from Kidsdata.org into Your Work.” The webinar takes place on Thursday, June 16 at 11 a.m.

In this webinar, we will show you how to use kidsdata.org to find fitness and weight data by region, gender, grade, and racial/ethnic group. We will demonstrate how you can view these data as maps and tables and bar and trend graphs and then import what you built into a Powerpoint presentation or Word document. You also will learn how to embed graphs onto your website.

Can’t join this webinar? No problem — just contact us at 650-724-5778 or [email protected] and we’d be happy to schedule one just for your organization.

Register for the webinar>>

Posted by kidsdata.org

A new policy brief just released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has found that one-third of California teens don’t participate in P.E. classes at school. In fact, the percentage of children taking P.E. drops with age, the study found — from 95% at age 12 to only 23% at age 17.

How did this happen?

Budget cuts to physical education programs are one culprit, researchers say, and exemptions that allow high schoolers to skip 2 years of P.E. are another. The brief’s authors recommend increased funding for P.E. and maintenance of existing programs to combat this issue.

On a related note, data about physical fitness just were updated on kidsdata.org. The data show that, depending on the gender and grade, about 25% to 40% of California students meet the state’s standards. And, although students in all grades have made gains over the past decade, the percentage of students meeting all fitness standards has largely leveled off in recent years. See our blog post on these fitness results.

Posted by kidsdata.org

In case you missed it, we wanted to point out a map of physical fitness data from kidsdata.org that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News yesterday.

The map notes physical fitness scores in six Bay Area counties for 5th, 7th, and 9th graders. This is just one great example of the power of data — these numbers can be so compelling when viewed in map form. Thanks to the Mercury News for the mention, and for incorporating data into their reporting.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Check out other Mercury News maps that incorporate data from kidsdata.org, featuring data about child abuse, juvenile arrests, truancy, suicide, and college readiness.

Posted by kidsdata.org