I wonder if you saw
this Associated Press story about the increase in underweight babies in the United States. The percentage of babies who are underweight is at a 40-year high, according to the story, which quotes the annual
Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The AP story says there are other key health indicators that are improving:
The report documented improvements in the child death rate, teen death rate, teen birth rate, high school dropout rate, and teens not in school and not working. There was no change in the infant mortality rate, while four areas worsened: low-birthweight babies, children living in with jobless or underemployed parents, children in poverty, and children in single-parent families.
In composite rankings for all 10 indicators, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Utah ranked the highest, while Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama and South Carolina ranked the lowest.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation Web site gives you the ability to download and compile newly released data in a variety of ways.
The foundation offers some resources on its Web site:
- Profiles by State give you detailed information about a single state, the U.S. or D.C.
- Comparisons by Topic allow you to compare specific data across multiple states. Results can be viewed as a ranking, map, or line graph.
- Overall Rank See how your state ranks for overall child well being.
- Raw Data give you the opportunity to download data as delimited files.
- PDF files of the 2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book allow you to download and view the print version of the data book.
- Auxiliary Material provide statistical significance breakdowns, national race/ethnicity breakdowns, and more.
