America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being

July 19, 2007

Last Friday we released the 10th anniversary edition of America’s Children, a product of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (Forum) is a collection of 22 Federal government agencies involved in research and activities related to children and families. The Forum was founded in 1994 and formally established in April 1997 under Executive Order No. 13045. The mission of the Forum is to foster coordination and collaboration and to enhance and improve consistency in the collection and reporting of Federal data on children and families. The Forum also aims to improve the reporting and dissemination of information on the status of children and families.

Quite a bit of media interest was generated (here | here) on the subject of teen sexual behavior but there was much more to the report. The full report is available here and our overview of the data on health indicators which we contributed to is below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | America's Children, asthma, children, diabetes, Drug use (illegal), extreme obesity, Forum on Child and Family Statistics, health insurance, HIV, infant mortality, National Center for Health Statistics, Obesity, out-of-wedlock births, Overweight, sexual behavior, unmarried childbearing, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Pandemic Flu

July 19, 2007

Pandemic flu is not tracked by the National Center for Health Statistics. For the best resources on pandemic or avian flu visit the pandemic flu website.

Leave a Comment » | National Center for Health Statistics, pandemic flu | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Mother’s Age at First Birth

July 19, 2007

One of the interesting demographic phenomena is the steady upwards creep in the age of women when they give birth to their first child.

In 1940 the age at first birth was 23.0 years. It dipped downwards to 21.5 in 1960 and was at 25.2 in 2004.

The data can be found here.

Leave a Comment » | Births, first birth, Mothers, National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Ambulatory Care Visits

July 19, 2007

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today issued a new report, “Ambulatory Medical Care Utilization Estimates for 2005,” which contains information on patient visits to emergency departments, outpatient clinics, and physician offices.

Highlights of the report:

  • There were over 1.2 billion patient visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient clinics, and emergency rooms in 2005.  Over the past decade, rates of visits per population increased for all types of health care settings studied. 
  • In the emergency department, the visit rate for patients with no insurance was about twice that of those with private insurance.
  • Conversely, patient visits to physician offices were higher for individuals with private health insurance compared with uninsured persons.
  • Over 29 percent of all ambulatory care visits were for chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and one in four were for preventive care, including check-ups, prenatal care, and post-surgical care.
  • There were 2.4 billion medications prescribed or administered at these visits.

Available for download.

Leave a Comment » | ambulatory care, Drug Use (legal), emergency room, National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, National Center for Health Statistics | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

More Obesity Resources

July 18, 2007

We’ve written a couple of times on the subject of overweight and obesity. However, some of our research has been published in scholarly journals rather than on our website.

The journal Obesity: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Secular Trends for Childhood BMI, Weight, and Height

The journal Gastroenterology: The Epidemiology of Obesity. More data on overweight and at-risk of overweight in children.

The Journal of the American Medical Association. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity.

The journal Clinical Nutrition and Obesity. Childhood Overweight and Family Income in the United States, 1999-2004.

Leave a Comment » | children, extreme obesity, JAMA, morbid obesity, National Center for Health Statistics, NHANES, Obesity, Overweight | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Circumcision Rates

July 18, 2007

Circumcision is a topic that has vigorous advocates for and against.

 As a statistical agency we don’t have a view on that particular subject but we do track male infant circumcision through our National Hospital Discharge Survey.

Our publication Trends in circumcisions among newborns can be downloaded as can this table showing numbers of circumsicisions and the percentage of infant boys receiving the procedure from 1979 through 2005.

Leave a Comment » | Births, circumcision, Hospital Discharge Survey, National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Discharge Survey | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Births at home and births by midwife

July 6, 2007

Home birthing and the use of a midwife versus a doctor is often the subject of discussion on the pages of popular magazines.

As part of our study of births, the National Center for Health Statistics produces data on the place of birth and who is attendant at that birth annually.  Those data from 1990 through 2004 are here.

Leave a Comment » | Births, children, home birth, midwife, Mothers, National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery

July 6, 2007

Pioneered by Sir John Charnley in the 1960s, hip and knee replacement surgery has offered a markedly improved quality of life to thousands of people who would otherwise have had their mobility severely limited. Since 1996 the rate of persons receiving total hip replacement has increased by 52% and the rate of those receiving total knee replacement has more than doubled.

 Data from the Hospital Discharge Survey document the increasing number of these surgeries is here.

1 Comment | hip replacement surgery, Hospital Discharge Survey, knee replacment surgery, National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Discharge Survey | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Historical Leading Causes of Death

July 6, 2007

We’re all fairly familiar with the leading causes of death today: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, influenza/Pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia. (As an aside, you can querythe leading causes of death in detail from 1981 to present at CDC’s WONDER database.) But what were the leading causes of death in the last century?

In 1950 we find the top 10 causes of death were, in order, heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, infant death, influenza/pneumonia, tuberculosis, arteriosclerosis, kidney disease, and diabetes. Skipping farther back to 1920 the leading causes are influenza/pneumonia, heart disease, tuberculosis, stroke, kidney disease, cancer, accidents, diarrhea/enteritis, premature birth, and childbirth related conditions.

The earliest data, that from 1900, give influenza/pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea/enteritis, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, accidents, cancer, senility, and diphtheria as the leading causes of death.

The leading causes of death from 1900 through 1998 is located here.

6 Comments | Deaths, leading causes of death, National Center for Health Statistics, tuberculosis, Vital Statistics System | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

Do 50% of marriages end in divorce?

July 6, 2007

We get this question all the time and the best we can say is that we don’t know. Based on data produced by the National Survey of Family Growth, 43% of first marriages by women aged 15-44 will end in a “disruption” within 15 years. Disruption is defined as either separation or divorce. As not all separations end in divorce (see Table 33 at the link) is would seem that the 50% figure is an overstatement.

The inestimable Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope takes a look at this “fact” and its probable genesis. While not endorsing this view, anyone writing about marriage and divorce should certainly consider the references he provides.

UPDATED DATA AVAILABLE HERE!

5 Comments | divorce rate, Marriage and Divorce, marriage rate, National Center for Health Statistics, National Survey of Family Growth | Permalink
Posted by billcrews

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