Parents' income and education play major factor for children's health, per study
08 10 08 - 12:36
Child-health report shows wide gaps according to wealth, education
Parents' income, education are factors
By Brie Zeltner - Plain Dealer Reporter
It's not surprising that children from poor, uneducated families aren't generally as healthy as those from wealthy families full of college graduates.
But in a report released today from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the gap between these children becomes startlingly obvious, and a surprising gap between the middle and upper classes is revealed - one that is seen across the country.
The report, released in a chartbook called "America's Health Starts with Healthy Children: How do States Compare?" is a state-by-state examination of the health of children from different social and economic backgrounds.
The foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America used data from child-health surveys by the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to measure general health and infant mortality in each state. The report also measures how far each state is from the best reported level in the country - or how good things could be.
What they found, in Ohio and across the country, is that we are falling short.
Fully one-third of children in the poorer families are in less-than-optimal health, and are five times more likely to be worse off than wealthier kids. In middle-class families, children were 1.5 times more likely to be in less-than-optimal health than in wealthy families.
"I was, frankly, somewhat stunned by the consistency of the patterns - it's just every state," said lead author Dr. Paula Braveman in a teleconference.
The infant mortality rate in Ohio is among the highest in the nation - which is not news. The rate rose by 9 percent in Ohio between 2000 and 2005, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation released in June.
Where the commission broke new ground is in showing just how much of a difference education and income could make to change these trends. In Ohio, 11 children per 1,000 born to mothers who didn't graduate from high school will die before reaching their first birthday. That number drops to just over four when a mother is a college graduate.
"The bad news is that we have these very large gaps, which can be thought of as shortfalls in the health potential of our children," Braveman said. "But the patterns we see tell us that these gaps are fixable if we as a society put our will to the task."
Authors Braveman and Susan Egerter said they were surprised at both the extent of the gaps and that the gaps were so consistent across the country and across every ethnic group they looked at.
"There is no innate biological reason that all children should not achieve the levels of kids in better-off families," Braveman said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
bzeltner@plaind.com, 216-999-4283
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