Child Poverty Linked to Health
One of the earliest indicators of a child’s future health and wellbeing is whether he or she lives in poverty. That’s why it it’s a key health factor measured by the County Health Rankings.
From an early age, poverty increases a person’s likelihood of developing a chronic medical condition, like diabetes or heart disease, and raises the risk of mortality due to accidental injury or a lack of access to health care. Poverty also exposes children to emotional distress, intimate partner violence and poor health behaviors—all of which can continue to have negative health repercussions throughout life. Poor educational achievement is also associated with poverty, which means young people may not be able to able to improve their financial situation as they grow older—perpetuating the cycle of poverty for another generation of children.
Last week, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual KidsCount Data Book, measuring the impact of poverty on children nationwide. The 2011 report found that the number of children living in poverty increased by 18 percent between 2000 and 2009. That means 2.4 million more children are living below the federal poverty line.
The Data Book also provides the most current information about 10 key measures of child well-being that the Foundation has tracked over the last twenty years. Since 2000, five areas have improved—the infant mortality rate, child death rate, teen death rate, teen birth rate, and the percent of teens not in school and not high school graduates; three areas have worsened—the percent of babies born low-birthweight, the child poverty rate and the percent of children living in single-parent families; and two areas are not comparable.
You can find child poverty data for your state, learn its overall rank, or compare data across states by visiting the report’s website: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/databook/2011/. You can also access child poverty data specific to your county by visiting its profile at http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/.
Photo courtesy of Poi Photography's photostream, Flickr.com Creative Commons