According to the study, living in the Deep South is the most consistent predictor of poor child health outcomes. The geographic disparity outranks all other common indicators, including poverty, parents’ employment status or single-parent households.
“We weren’t really surprised by the results because I think most people thought this might be the case,” says study co-author Dr. William Livingood, a UF associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Duval County Health Department’s Institute for Health, Policy and Evaluation Research. “But we were able to apply epidemiological principles to assess, clarify and map the problem and then document this intuitive feeling by making it scientific and evidence-based — much like the first epidemiologists in London who recognized, mapped and then defined the cholera problem.”
Researchers warn that the study evaluated children as a group, so the findings don’t apply to any single child’s risk. And overall, most American kids are quite healthy.
Other researchers say the findings are valuable and demand additional research.
“This paper presents important disturbing information, and adds unique information to our vast literature demonstrating shameful disparities in our children’s health,” says Dr. Michael Weitzman, chairman of pediatrics at New York University’s School of Medicine. “Why there are disparities and what to do about them are our society’s responsibility to our children.”
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