Description

A nation’s future lies with its children. Thus, the health of children is a matter of fundamental importance to all societies. In highly industrialized countries like the United States, the vast majority of children are healthy,1 but preventing disease and reducing injuries among the young holds promise for even further improvements in their well-being.

Substantial improvements in children’s health have been registered in the United States within the recent past. The U.S. infant mortality rate, for example, declined from 14.1 per 1,000 live births in 1977 to 10.8 in 1984, and the mortality rate of children between 1 and 14 years declined from 42.3 per 1,000 in 1977 to 34.1 per 1,000 in 1984.

Without dismissing the importance of such gains, one can cite at least three compelling reasons for an assessment of strategies for further improving American children’s health. First, the evidence suggests that the United States is not doing as well as it could in preventing health problems in children, despite the improvements to date. Second, prevention or treatment of health care problems in early childhood can benefit a child for a lifetime, and, conversely, failure to prevent such problems can be costly to the child, the child’s family, and the Nation. Finally, the burdens of illness, disability, and death are not borne evenly. Some American children are at particularly high risk for poor health, and many of them have only limited access to medical services.