Child health in the United States: Recent trends in racial/ethnic disparities

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Neil K. Mehta, Emory University; Hedwig Lee, University of Washington; Kelly R. Ylitalo, University of Michigan
• Language: English
• Date: 2013-10-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.011
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Social Science and Medicine
• ISSN: 0277-9536
• Volume: 95
• Start Page: 6
• End Page: 15
• Grant/Funding Information: Neil K. Mehta was additionally supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities' Loan Repayment Program.; The authors would like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars program for its financial support.
• Keywords: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; INCREASED PREVALENCE; Race; Ethnicity; Social Sciences; Science & Technology; Disparities; Asthma; AFRICAN-AMERICAN; RACIAL DISPARITIES; CARE; Autism; ASTHMA PREVALENCE; Social Sciences, Biomedical; SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS; Inequality; ETHNIC DISPARITIES; Biomedical Social Sciences; Trends; RACE; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Child health; HYGIENE HYPOTHESIS; United States; US CHILDREN
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

In the United States, race and ethnicity are considered key social determinants of health because of their enduring association with social and economic opportunities and resources. An important policy and research concern is whether the U.S. is making progress toward reducing racial/ethnic inequalities in health. While race/ethnic disparities in infant and adult outcomes are well documented, less is known about patterns and trends by race/ethnicity among children. Our objective was to determine the patterns of and progress toward reducing racial/ethnic disparities in child health. Using nationally representative data from 1998 to 2009, we assessed 17 indicators of child health, including overall health status, disability, measures of specific illnesses, and indicators of the social and economic consequences of illnesses. We examined disparities across five race/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, non-Hispanic Asian, and non-Hispanic other). We found important racial/ethnic disparities across nearly all of the indicators of health we examined, adjusting for socioeconomic status, nativity, and access to health care. Importantly, we found little evidence that racial/ethnic disparities in child health have changed over time. In fact, for certain illnesses such as asthma, black-white disparities grew significantly larger over time. In general, black children had the highest reported prevalence across the health indicators and Asian children had the lowest reported prevalence. Hispanic children tended to be more similar to whites compared to the other race/ethnic groups, but there was considerable variability in their relative standing.