The health of American children has deteriorated in the past 17 years, children today more likely to have obesity, chronic diseases and mental health problems such as depression, according to a new study.
A large part of what researchers have found was already known, but the study depicts a complete image by examining various aspects of physical and mental health of children at the same time.
“The surprising part of the study was not a single statistic; is that there are 170 indicators, eight data sources, all showing the same thing: a general reduction in children’s health,” said Dr. Christopher Forrest, one of the authors of the study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., put the health of children at the forefront of national political conversation, revealing in May a report “to make America again healthy” which described children as sub-compensated and too medicalized, and raised concerns about their lack of physical activity. But the actions of the Trump administration – including reductions in federal health agencies, Medicaid and scientific research – are not likely to reverse the trend, according to external experts who examined the study on Monday.
“The health of children in America is not as good as it should be, not as good as other countries, and the current policies of this administration will certainly worsen things,” said Dr. Frederick Rivara, pediatrician and researcher at the children’s hospital in Seattle and Uw Medicine in Seattle. He co-wrote an editorial accompanying the new study.
Forrest and his colleagues have analyzed surveys, electronic health files of 10 pediatric health systems and international mortality statistics. Among their results:
– Obesity rates for American children aged 2 to 19 increased from 17% in 2007 to 2008 to around 21% in 2021-2023.
– An American child in 2023 was 15% to 20% more likely than an American child in 2011 to have chronic illness such as anxiety, depression or sleep apnea, according to data reported by parents and doctors.
– Annual prevalence rates for 97 chronic conditions recorded by doctors increased from around 40% in 2011 to around 46% in 2023.
– Early appearance of menstruation, sleep problems, activity limits, physical symptoms, depressive symptoms and loneliness also increased in American children during the study period.
– American children were approximately 1.8 times more likely to die than children in other high -income countries from 2007 to 2022. Prémature and sudden unexpected death were much higher in American infants, and the incidents related to the weapon and accidents of motor vehicles were much more common in American children aged 1 to 19 than in those of the same age in other countries.
Research indicates greater problems with American health, said Forrest, who is a pediatrician at the Philadelphia children’s hospital.
“Children are the Canaries in the coal mine,” he said. “When children’s health changes, it is because they are in increased vulnerability, and this reflects what is happening in society as a whole.”
The study time, he said, is “completely fortuitous”. Long before the presidential election of 2024, Forrest worked on a book on the prosperity of the lifespan and did not find this type of complete data on the health of children.
The sets of data analyzed have certain limits and may not be applicable to the entire American population, noted Dr. James Perrin, pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, which was not involved in the study.
“The basic observation is true,” he said.
The editorial published alongside the study said that the Maha movement of the administration draws the attention of chronic diseases, “it will pursue other policies that will work against the interests of children.” These include the elimination of injury prevention and maternal health programs, canceling investments in a campaign attacking the sudden death of the infant and “fueling the hesitation of vaccines among parents who can lead to a resurgence of deadly vaccine diseases,” the authors wrote.
Officials of the US Health and Social Services Department did not respond to a request for comments.
Forrest said the risks highlighted by the Maha report, like eating too much ultra-transformed food is real, but lack the complex trends in children’s health.
“We have to step back and take some lessons from the community of ecological sustainability and say: let’s look at the ecosystem in which children grow up. And let’s start on a sort of neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city, examining it, “he said.
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