The health of American children has gotten so much worse over the past two decades that kids from the United States are dying at a much higher rate compared to those who live in similar high-income countries, a new study found.
Co-author Dr. Chris Forrest said that what is more concerning about the situation is the fact that the majority of the health problems are completely avoidable. He added that there is no genetic defect that is unique to American children, and the issue is not about socioeconomics within the country.
American Children's Health
Forrest added that everyone should feel disturbed by the study's findings, saying that American kids are "really suffering." The study found that from 2007 to 2022, children aged one to 19 were 1.8 times more likely to die than children in other high-income nations.
The researchers noted that the largest gaps were in deaths from gun violence and traffic accidents, where American children were 15 times more likely than their counterparts to lose their lives because of firearms and were twice as likely to be killed in motor vehicle crashes, according to CNN.
The study also found that kids from the U.S. are more likely to be sick due to chronic conditions, which is a relatively new issue. Forrest said that in the '90s, which is when he started taking care of children, he hardly saw ones who had chronic conditions.
However, nearly half of today's American children are receiving medical care for a chronic health problem. The researchers involved in the study analyzed hundreds of millions of health records from five nationally representative surveys and electronic health records from 10 pediatric health systems.
A Concerning Phenomenon
While the majority of the study's findings were already things that many people knew about, it paints a comprehensive picture by examining different aspects of children's physical and mental health at the same time, ABC News.
Forrest said that the surprising thing about the study's findings is that there were 170 indicators and eight data sources that all show the same thing. This is a generalized decline in children's health.
The study comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reiterated the importance of focusing on talking about children's health as part of the national policy conversation. In May, he unveiled a much-anticipated "Make America Healthy Again" report.
The report described children as being undernourished and overmedicated while raising concerns about kids' lack of physical activity. However, President Donald Trump's administration has taken various actions, such as cuts to federal health agencies, Medicaid, and scientific research, that are not likely to reverse the trend, as per the Associated Press.
