Children's health and education improves in Kentucky, but one in four kids lives in poverty, report shows

New data show one in four Kentucky children live in poverty, a sharp increase since 2005, but the state is improving when it comes to children's health and education. These were the latest findings in the influential Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as assessment of children's overall well-being in the country.

Compared to national averages, fewer Kentucky children go without health insurance (6 percent compared to the nation's 8 percent) and there are fewer teens who abuse alcohol or drugs (6 percent in Kentucky; 7 percent nationwide).

Though it remains higher than the national average, Kentucky's rate of child and teen deaths decreased considerably from 2005 to 2009 (41 per 100,000 to 32 per 100,000). And the number of babies who are born underweight dropped slightly in Kentucky from 2005 to 2009 (9.1 percent to 8.9 percent), though the number remains higher than the country as a whole (8.2 percent).

These were some of the 16 factors, shown below, that the report used to assess overall child well-being. The factors fell into four main groups: economic well-being, family and community, education and health. Kentucky ranked a somewhat dismal 35th among the 50 states in overall well-being of children. But in education, it was 28th, and in health, 25th.

The report shows the share of Kentucky children living in poverty grew by 18 percent from 2005 to 2010, meaning they lived at or below the federal poverty line. In 2010, that meant "an annual income of less than $22,113 for a family of two adults and two children," Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The Courier-Journal's Jessie Halladay points out that more children have access to health insurance in part because of a statewide push to get more children enrolled in the federally funded Kentucky Children's Health Program, known more commonly as KCHIP. Now, about 65,000 children are enrolled. "We are clearly making a difference in easing the difficulty these tough economic conditions put on our families," said Gov. Steve Beshear, who launched the effort.

But much work remains to be done, points out Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. He referred to the fact that while more fourth-graders are proficient in reading than they were in 2005, a whopping 65 percent of them were still not considered reading proficient in 2010. "At one level you want to celebrate us doing well compared to other states, but you can't celebrate too much," Brooks told Halladay. (Read more)

KET program will focus on children's health this Sunday

A discussion about the problems Kentucky families and children face on a daily basis will be at the heart of this week's "One to One" with Bill Goodman on KET.

Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, will be speaking about the 2012 legislative session. The program airs Sunday at 1 p.m. EST and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. EST.

KYA has been busy as of late, holding KIDS COUNT conversations in different parts of the state. A recent conversation in Hardin County painted a picture of the health status in the area as well as pointed out which public policies are in place to improve children's health. The conversation turned to topics like childhood obesity, oral health, health insurance, physical activity and birth-related indicators and outcomes like smoking during pregnancy and low-weight births.

The conversations are held in different counties about four times a year. Last week, there was another KIDS COUNT conversation in Jefferson County.

"We try to cover topics across the child's lifespan," said Amy Swann, KIDS COUNT coordinator. "We're touching on infants, touching on issues when they're still in utero, we're touching on school-age stuff, touching on teens."

2012 county health rankings released; meant to spur local change

By Tara Kaprowy

Kentucky Health News

Meant to be a conversation starter to fuel change for better health, the third-annual County Health Rankings were released today, a health-evaluation tool that assesses the country's counties on everything from their smoking to early mortality rates. Kentucky's rankings did not change significantly from last year, with Oldham and Boone counties at the top and Owsley, Magoffin and Wolfe counties at the bottom of the list.

Kentuckians who are the least healthy live in the Appalachian swath of the state, the rankings show. Fulton County in Kentucky's southwestern tip ranks low, though is not surrounded by other low-ranked areas. Counties that hug urban centers — Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati — have the highest rankings. The data are compiled by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Kentucky's breakdown is not unusual, but part of a nationwide pattern in which the least healthy counties are often in rural, sparsely populated areas, said Dr. Patrick Remington, lead researcher and associate dean for public health at UW's School of Medicine and Public Health. "At the other end, you see urban centers as having similar problems and often ranking at the bottom of the list," he said. "Another pattern is some of the suburban communities, ring communities, are some of the healthiest communities."

Counties are ranked in two ways: health outcomes (such as premature death rates, low birthweight, how good or bad people feel physically and mentally) and health factors (such as smoking, obesity and binge-drinking rates). In health outcomes, graphic above, Oldham, Boone and Calloway ranked first, second and third respectively. Owsley County was ranked last, preceded by Martin and Wolfe counties.

In health factors, left, Woodford County ranked first, followed by Oldham and Boone. Clay County (labeled CY) was in last place, preceded by Magoffin and Wolfe counties (MG and WO).

Though Kentucky's counties are ranked from 1 to 120, because of the small sample sizes in many of them, the rankings do not "represent statistically significant differences from county to county," the rankings website reads. Sources for the data also change, so direct comparisons from year to year are also inexact, Remington said. This year, researchers tracked the number of fast-food restaurants in a county and levels of physical inactivity. They also used premature death rate trends over 10 years, a hard number that alone can indicate progress, Remington said.

Though Remington said he would "be naive to say the competitive element doesn't pique interest in the rankings," they are "not really intended to be a race to the top." Instead, rankings should be used as a "Polaroid snapshot of community health," Remington said. The data should be used by officials to pinpoint problem areas, drill down and make policy changes in turn, he said.

That's what Chip Johnson, mayor of Hernando, Miss., did. Participating in a teleconference about the rankings, Johnson talked about how policies aimed at improving health have changed his city. Officials have required sidewalks in all new and re-developments, he said. All new streets should be biking and pedestrian accessible. The city has partnered with schools so people can use their gyms to work out. And Johnson encouraged a local bank to donate land for a 37-acre park. "Banks are sitting on land they've repossessed and don't know what to do with it," he said. "We're naming the park after the bank."

The goal is to create infrastructure that will make it easier for people to make healthy decisions, he said, pointing out, "You can't exercise your personal responsible for good health if your city or county does not give you that atmosphere or opportunity." Johnson said he responded to this reality by strategically placing the city's only farmers' market, community garden and community center in its lowest-income area.

As indicated by the data assessed and Johnson's efforts, "Much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor's office," foundation President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said, and factors like education rates, income levels and access to healthy food all play a part, researchers found. Data also show where someone lives can influence health. Excessive drinking, for example, is highest in Northern states. Rates of teen births, sexually transmitted infections and children living in poverty are highest in Southern states.

The rankings are based on several sources of data, from vital statistics to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the world's largest, on-going telephone health survey. "We found even though the data are available nationally, it requires a lot of time and effort," Remington said. "This is one-stop shopping, not just for death and disease rates but for all of the factors that lead to a healthy community. Combining them allows people to start the conversation pretty easily."

Susan Zepeda, CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, applauded the effort. "Local health data can spur communities to action to create better health outcomes for all Kentuckians," she said.

Kentucky ranks next to last, Fifth Congressional District dead last in national healthiness and happiness survey

(Click on images for larger versions)

Kentucky was again next to last among the states in happiness and healthiness of its residents in 2011, ranking above only West Virginia, though precise rankings are uncertain. Eastern Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District ranked at the very bottom of the 436 districts — falling in last place in the categories of life evaluation, emotional health and physical health.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is based on a continuing national survey that asks respondents about their overall sense of well-being, physical health, happiness, job satisfaction and other factors related to quality of life.

Of the 190 cities ranked, Lexington was 95th and Louisville 152nd. Kentucky's well-being score was 63.3 out of a possible 100 points. Hawaii again ranked first, at 70.2. West Virginia's score was 62.3. Because there were fewer than 10 points between first and last place, the rankings are not precise. Kentucky ranked lowest in the country in emotional health, which is based on feelings of happiness and sadness. Respondents were also asked about "physical health (chronic health conditions, obesity); lifestyle behaviors (smoking, diet and exercise); emotional health (feelings of happiness, sadness); work environment (relationship with supervisors); basic access (health care, food); and life evaluation (how they rate their lives)," reports Nanci Hellmich of USA Today.

Results were based on telephone interviews conducted between Jan. 2 and Dec. 29, 2011, producing a random sample of 353,492 adults. The margin of sampling error for most states is plus or minus 1 to 2 percentage points, but as high as plus or minus 4 points for states with small populations such as Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware and Hawaii. (Read more)