Maternal and Child Health Library

This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html

January 8, 2010

1. REPORT PROVIDES NATIONAL- AND STATE-LEVEL DATA ON MULTIPLE ASPECTS OF CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The Health and Well-Being of Children: A Portrait of States and the Nation 2007 presents indicators of the health and well-being of children as well as the factors in the family environment and aspects of the neighborhood that may support or undermine children's and families' health. The report, published by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau, is based on data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. National-level indicators present basic information on children's health status and risk and protective factors and show the subpopulations at particular risk in each area. Key indicators for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia -- including indicators related to the child's health, health care, and activities; the child's family; and the child's and family's neighborhood -- are presented in comparison with national statistics. Because some of the survey questions were revised to improve the quality of the data obtained and may have influenced parents' responses, the authors note where current (2007) findings cannot be compared with those reported in 2003. The report is available at http://mchb.hrsa.gov/nsch07/index.html. Print copies are also available from the HRSA Information Center's Web site at http://ask.hrsa.gov, or by phone at (888) ASK-HRSA or (703) 442-9051.

Readers: More information about the survey and its findings and other resources are available from the Data Resource Center on Child and Adolescent Health's Web site at http://www.childhealthdata.org. The public use data set is also available from the National Center for Health Statistics' Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhcs.htm

• Among women with and without GDM pregnancies, a longer cumulative duration of lactation was strongly protective, even after controlling for parity and baseline covariates, including components of the MetS before pregnancy.
• For women with non-GDM pregnancies, there was a threshold effect, with lactation more than 1 month conferring protection, compared with lactation 0 to 1 month.
• Among women with GDM pregnancies, there was a strong, graded inverse association of lactation with incidence of the MetS; those with longest lactation approached the non-GDM incidence rate of the MetS.
• The associations remained after controlling for mediators such as changes in physical activity or weight gain during follow-up, with a stronger protective association among the GDM group.

• In 2007, 16.4 percent of children were obese and 31.6 percent were overweight.
• Between 2003 and 2007, obesity prevalence increased by 10.4 percent for all U.S. children.
• Between 2003 and 2007, obesity prevalence increased by 23 percent to 33 percent for children in low-education, low-income, and higher unemployment households.
• After adjusting for age and gender, Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and American Indian children had 3.4 to 3.8 times higher odds of obesity and 3.0 to 3.5 times higher odds of overweight than Asian children.
• Children with parents with less than 12 years of education had 325 percent higher odds of obesity in 2007 and 163 percent higher odds in 2003 than children with parents having a college degree.
• In 2007, children from families with incomes below the poverty threshold had 243 percent higher odds of obesity and 187 percent higher odds of overweight than children with family income exceeding 400 percent of the poverty threshold. In 2003, the corresponding odds were 182 percent higher for obesity and 126 percent for overweight.
• Racial and socioeconomic gradients in obesity and overweight persisted and remained substantial even after taking into account behavioral factors.

• Between 1997 and 2002, viewing of noncommercial television decreased, and viewing of commercial television increased.
• For children under age 7 in 1997, each hour per day of commercial viewing in 1997 was significantly associated with a 0.11 increase in BMI z scores in 2002, after controlling for sociodemographic covariates.
• For children ages 7 and older in 1997, none of the television-viewing variables had significant effects when included without the child's baseline BMI or the potential mediators, although the effect of commercial television viewing in 2002 showed a trend toward significance.
• When including the child's baseline BMI, the magnitude of the association with 2002 commercial content was similar, but the effect became statistically significant.
• None of the other categories had significant effects.
• Results remained significant when physical activity and eating while watching television were controlled.