WEDNESDAY, July 20, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- The federal government's annual report card on the well-being of America's children presents a generally healthy picture, with some notable exceptions.
"This year, the adolescent birth rate has reached another record low, the death rate for children aged 1 to 4 is the lowest ever, young children are more likely to receive their recommended immunizations, and fourth graders are scoring better in math," Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said at a news conference Tuesday.
On the flip side, children are more likely to be living in poverty, infants are more likely to be born underweight, children are more likely to commit or be a victim of a violent crime, and reading scores of older children have gone down.
The report, the ninth annual America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2005, was compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
The review reveals differences based on income and race and ethnicity.
"The picture certainly has improved, but the disparities persist," said Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The U.S. population is, by no means, homogenous in these measures, and we need to try to identify what is causing the differences and understand them and use that knowledge to close the gaps."
In 2003, the teen birth rate was 22 for every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17, down from 23 in 2002. In 1991, the rate was much higher: 39 births for every 1,000 girls. The current rate is highest among black, non-Hispanic adolescents, but even that is much lower than it was: 39 for every 1,000 girls in 2003, down from 86 in 1991.
Also in 2003, 81 percent of children aged 19 to 35 months had received the recommended vaccinations, up from 78 percent in 2002. Children living in poverty were less likely to have been vaccinated (76 percent) than other kids (83 percent).
This year's report also included a special feature on asthma that found that about 13 percent of children will be diagnosed with the respiratory disease at some point in their lives. In 2003, about 9 percent of children had been diagnosed with the condition.
Another feature found that about 2 percent of children aged 1 to 5 had elevated levels of lead in their blood, down dramatically from 88 percent in 1976-1980.
And the report's first mental health indicator found that 5 percent of children were reported by their parents to have "definite or severe" emotional or cognitive difficulties.
"This is not surprising to us," said Dr. Susan E. Swedo, director of the division of pediatric translational research and treatment development at the National Institute of Mental Health. "It's in keeping with smaller community-bases samples." Although there were no striking racial differences, children living below the poverty line were twice as likely to have a difficulty in this area, as were children from single-parent homes.
Yet another feature analyzed child well-being in terms of family structure, which is generally defined as the number and type of parents or guardians.
On average, children living with two married parents did better on five indicators of well-being, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "This continues to add to the literature showing a relationship between family structure and outcomes," he said.
Those indicators were: percentage of births that are underweight; infant mortality rates; percentage of 15-to-17-year-olds enrolled in school; percentage of this age group reported to be in excellent or very good health; and the percentage of adolescent girls who have children out of wedlock by ages 17 to 19.
Also encouraging was the finding that only 8 percent of eighth-graders had used illicit drugs in the past month in 2004, down from 10 percent in 2003. The rates did not change for 10th- and 12th-graders.
However, more children aged 12 to 17 were victims of violent crimes, 18 per 1,000 in 2003 versus 10 per 1,000 in 2002. Officials downplayed the statistic, pointing out that it was still lower than the peak of 44 per 1,000 in 1993.
"We have been fortunate to experience a long-term drop in violence affecting all ages and all races and ethnic groups and particularly affecting those under the age of 18," said Larry Greenfeld, director of the bureau of justice statistics at the Department of Justice. "The 2003 rate was slightly higher and this is just a minor fluctuation compared to 2002. There is no evidence that the small increase we saw in 2003 portends rising rates of violence."
The proportion of children aged 17 and younger living below the poverty line also increased slightly, to 18 percent in 2003 from 17 percent in 2002. This rate has typically fluctuated from year to year, the report stated.
In 2003, as in 2002, about 13 million children -- or 18 percent -- lived in households classified as "food insecure."
The percentage of children with no health insurance -- 8.4 million or 11 percent of all children -- also remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003.
The United States also had more children living within its borders (73 million) than in 2002 (72.8 million). At the same time, children in 2003 only represented 25 percent of the total population, down from a peak of 36 percent in 1964.
"We expect this to increase to about 80 million children in 2020," said Robert Kominski, assistant chief for social and demographic statistics in the population division of the Census Bureau. "Children as a proportion of the population are actually stabilizing and are expected to remain fairly stable for awhile."
The population of children in the United States is also becoming more diverse. Between 2002 and 2003, the percentage of Hispanic children increased from 18 percent to 19 percent of children. This segment has grown faster than any other racial or ethnic group, from 9 percent of children in 1980.
More information
To learn more, visit the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
