Child Health USA 2001 Report

Citation

(2002), "Child Health USA 2001 Report", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215bab.005

Child Health USA 2001 Report

Child Health USA 2001 ReportKeywords: American children, Health, Special care needs

Child Health USA 2001, the 12th annual report on the health status and service needs of American children, focuses on children with special health-care needs, defined as youngsters with chronic conditions requiring services beyond what most children need. The report was published by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

It says that access to physicians is a central issue for children with special health-care needs. Children with disabilities, part of that group, make more visits to physicians each year than other children. Among children aged five to 14, 20 per cent of those with disabilities made four or five doctor visits per year, compared with less than 5 percent of non-disabled children. Although children with disabilities make fewer visits to the doctor as they mature, the gap between them and non-disabled children persists.

Other findings of the report include:

• •

  The birth-rate in 1999 among adolescents fell to a record low, fewer than 50 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. Teen birth-rates are much higher within minority groups. Among Hispanics, the adolescent birth-rate in 1999 was 93 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 and, among African-Americans, 84 births per 1,000.

• •

  The mortality rate among African-American infants is more than twice that of whites, with 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births for whites in 1999 and 14.6 for African-Americans.

• •

  In 2000, nearly 73 per cent of children 18 to 35 months of age were fully immunised; close to a million children still needed one or more doses of vaccine.

• •

  The percentage of children covered by private health insurance or by public programs increased. Between 1998 and 1999, the proportion of uninsured children declined from 15.4 per cent to 13.9 per cent. Among children in poverty, the proportion dropped from 26.4 per cent to 24.2 per cent.

For more information, visit the HRSA Web site at www.ask.hrsa.gov