NCHStats

Each year, NCHS releases a report to Congress and to the President concerning the nation’s health. This report is available to the media and the public, and the 33rd edition, Health United States, 2009, can be found at www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm. Each year the report features a special section, and this year’s focus is the growing use of medical technology.

For the report’s press release, visit www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/10newreleases/hus09.htm.

For a podcast with one of the report’s authors, visit www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/STATCASTS/statcasts.htm#statcast_16.

For a brief summary of this report, visit www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus09_InBrief.pdf.

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that children with and without functioning difficulty differ greatly in their use of educational and health care services. This report presents estimates of basic actions difficulty, which includes difficulties related to sensory, motor, cognitive, and emotional or behavioral functioning, in U.S. children aged 5–17 years based on questions from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Here are some results:

• Approximately 18% of children aged 5–17 had basic actions difficulty in one or more of the following domains of functioning: sensory, movement, cognitive, or emotional or behavioral.
• The percentage of children with difficulty in specific domains varied: 3% had sensory difficulty, 2% movement difficulty, 9% cognitive difficulty, and 10% emotional or behavioral difficulty.
• From 2001 through 2007, the percentage of children aged 5–17 with basic actions difficulty remained stable at about 18%.

In addition, income was influential. Poor children (3%) were more likely to have movement difficulty than children who were not poor (2%). See the chart below.

For more information please visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr019.pdf.

In 2006, Louisiana had the highest age-adjusted rate of homicides and injuries by firearms out of all 50 states:

• Death rate from homicides: 12.8 deaths per 100,000 population
• Rate of injury by firearms: 19.3 out of 100,000 populuation

For the complete listing of states, visit the report.

In 2005, Louisiana also topped all 50 states with its homicide and injury by firearms rate, with 12.9 homicides per 100,000 population and 18.6 injuries by firearms per 100,000 population. For the complete list of states, visit the report.

A new report examining the costs of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and visits to CAM practitioners was released by NCHS today, in conjunction with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. The report estimates that–

• Adults in the U.S. spent $33.9 billion out of pocket on visits to CAM practioners and on CAM products, classes, and material.

 

• In 2007, 38.1 million adults made an estimated 354.2 million visits to CAM practioners.

 

• On average, adults in the U.S. spent $121.92 per person for vists to CAM providers and paid $29.37 out of pocket per visit.

For more from this report, visit www.cdc.gov/nchs.

Vaccinations are responsible for reducing disease and death; however, vaccinations among certain population subgroups remain low, and national health objectives have not been met. Despite 2010 influenza and pneumococcal vaccination objectives of 90% for adults 65 and over and 60% for younger, high-risk adults, only 66% of the former and 35% of the latter received an influenza vaccination during the 2006-2007 vaccination period. Also, only 60% of those 65 years and over have ever received a pneumococcal vaccination, and levels vary a great deal by race and ethnicity.

For more, including information about tetanus and HPV vaccination coverage, visit the report.

Did you know–

• More woman than men get married before age 40 (86% compared with 81%).
• Non-Hispanic black men and women aged 25–44 have
  lower percentages who have ever been married than non-Hispanic white and Hispanic persons of the same age.
• The probability of first marriage by age 18 is low for both men and women: 6% for women and 2% for men.
• There is a 50% probability that women will have married for the first time by the age of 25. Not until age 27 is there a 50% probability that men will have married for the first time.

For more information, which comes from the National Survey of Family Growth, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18.pdf.

Are you looking for statistics on the health of U.S. children? You may want to check out the site for the National Survey of Children’s Health, a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. You can search the 2007 data set by clicking here. Or, you can find out more about the the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health by visiting their website.