New report examines state of children's health in Franklin County and Ohio

Nationwide Children's Hospital released a new report today that highlights the health and well-being of children in Franklin County (Source: "Hospital reports sad facts on kids' health," The Columbus Dispatch, May 1, 2008).  The report's also includes comparison data for Ohio and the U.S.

On the 9 indicators with state and national level comparison information, Fraanklin County has better outcomes than the rest of Ohio and the U.S. on 4 measures (immunization, smoking, teenage smoking, and unintentional injuries.  Franklin County has a similar outcome on the asthma indicator with Ohio, and both Franklin County and Ohio are worse than the U.S.  For health insurance coverage, Franklin County has the highest level of Ohio's metropolitan communities, but it is still much better than the U.S.

Franklin County has much worse outcomes for infant mortality, adolescent homicide, and teenage pregnancy. The report also found that a sizeable percent of the youth of Columbus and Frankling County are overweight and that the number of overweight children has tripled in the past 30 years.

The issues that has the greatest area of attention is weight and physical activity.  According to Dr. Steve Allen, CEO of the hospital, "We know that it's not something they outgrow; 80 percent who are overweight or obese when they're 10 will be overweight or obese when they're adults,"

The data for the 10 indicators of child health included in the report are:

Infant mortality: (deaths per 1,000 live births) 8.4 Franklin, 8.3 Ohio, 6.9 U.S.

Immunization (fully immunized at 19-35 months) 86% Franklin, 84% Ohio, and 81% U.S.

Asthma: (children with asthma) 10% Franklin, 10% Ohio, and 9% U.S.

Smoking: (9th-12th graders who smoke) 14% Franklin, 24% Ohio, 23% U.S.

Teen pregnancy (births per 1,000 to 15-17 year olds) 25.9 Franklin, 19.6 Ohio, 21.4 U.S.

Unintentional injuries (rate of death per 100,000) 10.1 Franklin, 21.2 Ohio, 21.5 U.S.

Teen suicide (rate per 100,000) 7.5 Franklin, 11.6 Ohio, 10.3 U.S.

Adolescent homicide (rate per 100,000) 20.1 Franklin, 9.8 Ohio, 12 U.S.

Access to health care (children without health insurance) 7% Franklin, 5% Ohio, 9% U.S.

Obesity (overweight children) 30% Columbus, 25% Franklin,