The Health of us children has deteriorated in the past 17 years, since children are more likely today obesityChronic diseases and psychological health problems such as depression, A new study says.
Much of what researchers found was already known, but the study paints a comprehensive picture by examining different aspects of children’s physical and mental health at the same time.
“The surprising part of the study was not with a single statistics. There were 170 indicators, eight data sources, all of which showed the same thing: a general decline in children’s health,” said Dr. Christopher Forrest, one of the study published on Monday in the journal of the American Medical Association.
Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought the health of the children to the foreground of the national political conversation and unveiled in May A highly expected report “Make America Healthy” This described children as malnourished and over -mediators and expressed concerns about their lack of physical activity. But the government’s Trump government Actions – including cuts too Federal Health agenciesPresent Medicaid And Scientific research – According to external experts who checked the study on Monday, are probably not the other way around.
“The health of children in America is not as good as it should be, not as good as in the other countries, and the current guidelines of this administration will definitely make it worse,” said Dr. Frederick Rivara, pediatrician and researcher of the Seattle Children’s Hospital and UW medicine in Seattle. He was a co -author An editorial accompaniment of the new study.
Forrest and his colleagues analyzed surveys, electronic health records from 10 pediatric health systems and international mortality statistics. Under their findings:
-The obesicability rates for US children between the ages of 2 and 19 rose from 17% in 2007 to 2008 to around 21% in 2021-2023.
-A US child in 2023 was 15 to 20% higher than a US child in 2011 to have a chronic illness such as anxiety, depression or sleep apnea, according to the data reported by parents and doctors.
– The annual prevalence rates for 97 chronic diseases recorded by doctors rose from around 40% in 2011 to around 46% in 2023.
– Earlier start of menstruation, sleep disorders, restrictions on activity, physical symptoms, depressed symptoms and loneliness, also increases in American children during the study period.
-American children die from 2007 to 2022 in other countries with high incomes around 1.8 times more often than children in other countries with high incomes. The early and sudden unexpected death was much higher in infants, and incidents related to firearms and motor vehicle accidents were much more common in 1-19-year-old American children in other countries examined.
Research plays on major problems with America’s health, said Forrest, a pediatrician in the children’s hospital in Philadelphia.
“Children are the Canary Islands in the coal mine,” he said. “If the health of the children changes, it is because they have increased vulnerability and reflects what happens in society as a whole.”
The time of the study is “completely accidental”. Long before the 2024 presidential election, Forrest worked on a book about the thrive over the lifespan and could not find this kind of comprehensive data about the health of children.
The analyzed data records have some restrictions and may not be applicable to the full US population.
“The basic knowledge is true,” he said.
The editorial published together with the study states, while the Maha movement of the administration gives a welcome attention to chronic diseases: “It pursues other guidelines that work against the interests of children.” This includes removal of injury prevention and Mother health programsInvestments in a campaign that deals with the death of the infant to the infant and hesitates vaccine, among the parents who can lead to one Resuscitation of fatal vaccine diseases“The authors wrote.
Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States did not respond to a request for comments.
Forrest said that the risks emphasized by the Maha report, such as too much ultra-processed food, are real, but miss the complex reality trends in children’s health.
“We have to step back and take some lessons from the ecological sustainability community and say: Let’s look at the ecosystem where children grow up. And we start with a kind of neighborhood, city to community, examines it,” he said.
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