Tune into Kids in Georgia

Challenges Facing Georgia’s Children Today:

Health coverage Currently, the percent of uninsured children is the most reliable indicator we have to estimate the health of Georgia children. Children who have health insurance have greater access to health care. With greater access to healthcare, they have better opportunities to develop physically, mentally and emotionally. Voices is working to ensure that all Georgia’s children have comprehensive healthcare insurance, so they can receive the care they need.

Georgia currently ranks 41st nationally for its high number of uninsured children. In 2004 Georgia had an estimated 301,407 uninsured children, about 12% of children in the state.[1] Lack of healthcare coverage clearly leads to greater health challenges. In 2003, children without any health coverage were ten times less likely to receive the care they needed-- 37.8% went without any medical care for a full year. Uninsured children are much more likely to miss school days and vital learning time due to health issues. Yet, almost 230,000 or 75% of the kids lacking healthcare coverage are in income categories that should make them eligible for existing programs such as Medicaid and PeachCare.[2] Georgia’s challenge is to ensure that these children are afforded the health coverage they lack, for the health care they need.

[1] Report from William Custer and Patricia Ketsche: Center for Health Services Research Robinson College of Business Institute of Health Administration- Georgia State University

[2] Report from Timothy Sweeny Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

Health statistics. Beyond measuring Georgia’s children’s health insurance coverage, Voices has developed a set of indicators that can be used to ascertain and monitor the state of children’s health in Georgia. View a copy of our Five Healthy Steps Indicators report for details.

INFANCY( 0-1):  Georgia consistently ranks among the bottom ten states in the nation for rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, and premature births.  In 2003, 1,153 infants in Georgia died before age one. 12,886 babies were born with low birth weights: that equates to 35 each day.

EARLY CHILDHOOD (2-5):  Immunization against seven different diseases by Age 2 is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics; this equals approximately 20 to 26 doses of vaccine per child.  By age 5, Georgia requires children to be fully immunized as a condition of entering public school.

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (6-9): Incidence of Tooth Decay among Third Graders.  Dental caries, or tooth decay, are the single most common chronic childhood disease, affecting five times as many children as asthma. Tooth decay is preventable through a combination of community, professional and individual measures including water fluoridation, professionally applied topical fluorides and dental sealants.

EARLY ADOLESCENTS (10-13): Body weight in proportion to height (BMI).  The National Association of State Boards of Education recognized “health and success in school are interrelated. Schools cannot achieve their primary mission of education if students and staff are not healthy and fit physically, mentally and socially.”  Recognized as one of the greatest health problems facing the nation in his 2001 Report on Overweight and Obesity, then Surgeon General David Satcher stressed the importance of a personal as well as community responsibility approach to improving the weight of Americans.  Body Mass Index, while a proximate measure of good nutrition and fitness, is the best available indicator of progress in improving children’s weight, but is not yet collected on all of Georgia’s children on a regular basis.

OLDER ADOLESCENCE (14-18): Researchers classify adolescent depression into three categories: depressed mood, depressive syndromes and clinical depression. Depressed mood is associated with feelings of unhappiness or sadness, lasting for a brief or extended period of time. If depressed mood lasts for two weeks or more, such that it interferes with daily living, it is considered one of the symptoms of clinical depression and may be predictive of future mental health disorders.

Depression in the adolescent years has often been dismissed as part of the teen’s normal development in this time of “storm and stress, intense moodiness and preoccupation with the self.”  However, as research has shown, adolescence is an important developmental period for understanding the nature, course and treatment of depression. Adolescent depression has been associated with poor psychosocial and academic outcomes as well as increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. Frequently studied risk factors for adolescent depression include parental relationships, parental depression, peer relations and loneliness. Parental depression, specifically maternal depression, can increase the adolescent’s lifetime risk for developing major depressive disorder (MDD) by 15-45 percent.   Additionally, a depressed adolescent is at a significantly greater risk for adult depression and other depressive disorders in adulthood. report of child health indicators was developed through a grant from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation to provide data enabling Voices to establish 10 year goals for improvement in children’s health across all developmental stages.