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yesterday

JAMA Study Finds Multi-Decade Decline in U.S. Child Health

Steep rises in child mortality alongside surging chronic illness, mental distress now stand with no systemic reforms in sight.

FILE - Children run on the lawn at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., on April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
Girl works at a computer and eats fast food.
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Overview

  • Infants under one in the U.S. are 78 percent more likely to die than those in other OECD countries and children aged one to 19 face an 80 percent higher mortality risk.
  • Firearm deaths among U.S. youth are 15 times higher and motor vehicle fatalities more than double those in peer nations.
  • The share of children with at least one chronic condition climbed from about 40 percent in 2011 to 46 percent in 2023, while obesity rates rose from 17 percent to 21 percent.
  • Indicators of emotional and functional health worsened, with spikes in depressive symptoms, loneliness and early onset puberty affecting one in seven girls.
  • Study authors alongside the Make America Healthy Again Commission have urged ecosystem-level reforms that federal and state officials have yet to enact.