Childhood obesity high, rate of insurance falling

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Information about he status of the health of Nevada’s kindergarteners is available through a report published by the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy at UNLV.

The second annual report was composed from the 16-question survey given to more than 24,000 parents children entering kindergarten in the 2009-2010 school year.

“The report is significant because it provides a unique look at the health status of kindergarteners, as well as barriers to health care, in our state that are not readily available elsewhere,” said Kari Wolkwitz, research analyst for the NICRP. “We are hopeful that the data may help to inform future public policy decisions.”

The report discusses demographic information about the state’s kindergarteners and their families, including household size, income, race and ethnicity. It also looks at the kindergarteners’ insurance status and access to health care, prevalence of routine medical care, information on specific medical conditions and information on levels of physical activity and weight statuses, Wolkwitz said.

Highlighting the high rate of obesity in the state’s kindergarteners, the report concluded that the rate of obesity, at 25.3 percent, is raising concerns about childhood obesity in the United States.

The report shows there is a large percentage of children without health insurance, at 17.8 percent, and that the number of children with private insurance has seen a sharp decline. While there has been a decrease in children who have private insurance, there has been an increase in the number of kids who were covered under Medicaid, said Denise Tanata Ashby, executive director of the NICRP, in a video interview.

“Not surprising, it is consistent with what is happening in our economy,” Tanata Ashby said.

Other statistics that Wolkwitz said the NICRP found were the percent of parents with an annual household income of less than $25,000 was at 30.2 percent, the percent of children who have not been tested for lead poisoning was at 83.2 percent, and the percent of children who have not visited a dentist in the past year was at 29.7 percent.

Some trends that the NICRP saw from the report of the 2008-09 academic year include the continuing high rate of obesity and the drop of children without health insurance.

“We believed in the importance of collecting data for a second year of kindergarteners and hope to be able to do so in future years so that we can analyze health status trends over time,” Wolkwitz said.

NICRP conducted the survey with the assistance of the Clark County School District, Nevada School District Superintendents, the Nevada Head Start Collaboration and Early Childhood Comprehensive Services Offices and the Nevada State Health Division.

For the 2009-10 school year survey, NICRP amended some questions of the 2008-09 school year survey, but kept the majority of the questions the same so that comparisons from year one to year two could be made, according to Wolkwitz.

“School districts assisted in distributing the survey to parents of kindergarteners and all data was compiled, entered and analyzed by NICRP,” Wolkwitz said.

The NICRP decided to begin conducting the health survey among kindergarteners because the state’s comprehensive data was not readily available.

Wolkwitz said the NICRP, the Southern Nevada Health District and school districts across the state came together to develop and support the survey as a way to gain information on the health status of children entering school.

“The survey data and ensuing report provide valuable data on the physical health of kindergarteners, as well as data on prevalence of health insurance coverage and access to health care,” Wolkwitz said.

Tanata Ashby said in the video interview that the survey results are good to inform school’s nutrition programs and to know where are the problem areas the school districts can focus on in terms of health.

“As we know, if kids aren’t healthy, they are not going to succeed well in school.”

Victoria Gonzalez
unlvrebelyell.com

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