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The
Columbus Dispatch...
Data
sobering on Ohio kids’ poverty, obesity
By Jeb
Phillips
Wednesday
June 13, 2012
Nearly half
of Ohio’s children received free or reduced-cost school lunches in
2010, and
those children were 30 percent more likely to be overweight or obese
than
others, according to a new survey of the state’s children released
yesterday.
Kids Count,
compiled by the Children’s Defense Fund in Ohio, offers an annual
snapshot of
the well-being of the state’s youth. A new section of the report called
“Health
Access” includes information about obesity, oral health and insurance
rates.
“(The
report) is important for policy-makers and elected officials at the
local,
state and federal levels in deciding how resources should be divided,”
said
Renuka Mayadev, Children’s Defense Fund executive director.
Among the
most interesting of this year’s findings is the relationship between
“food
insecurity” and being overweight, said Hayden Shelby, research analyst
for the
Children’s Defense Fund. Children who have limited access to nutritious
food
are more often overweight.
The report
also shows that children in families with higher incomes are less
likely to be
overweight, she said.
“One theory
is that food that is really processed, that (represents) a lot of
caloric
intake ... you get a lot of bang for your buck,” she said. Cheap foods
can be
unhealthy.
Shelby said
the report shows how interconnected all aspects of a child’s well-being
are —
socioeconomic status, health, safety and education. Some categories
show that
minority children can have a particularly hard time.
About 45
percent of black children live below the poverty line, while only about
16
percent of white children do.
“That’s a
staggering difference,” Shelby said. “I checked that number I don’t
know how
many times, because I just didn’t believe it.”
Delaware
County ranks among Ohio’s best counties in many statistical areas,
including
lowest percentages of child maltreatment and child poverty. But the
county has
a smaller percentage of children covered for vision and dental care
than the
state as a whole.
Many
Delaware County families rely on private insurance through employers
that might
not cover vision and dental, Shelby said.
Appalachian
counties, which rank poorly in many statistical areas, do better than
average
with vision and dental coverage for children. The higher percentages of
children living in poverty there mean they can be covered by Medicaid.
Whether
there are enough doctors in poorer areas is another issue, Shelby said.
Franklin
County’s statistics track closely to Ohio’s in several categories. The
county’s
median family income was $47,621 in 2010 and the state’s was $45,151;
48
percent of Franklin County children received free or reduced-price
lunches,
while 44 percent did statewide.
The Kids
Count released yesterday primarily uses statistics from 2010, and it
was funded
by the Maryland-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. The foundation
supports
similar surveys in every state.
The
Children’s Defense Fund National Conference will be held in Cincinnati
in July
and will include discussion on using recent research to help children
and the
poor, Mayadev said.
Read this
and other articles at the Columbus Dispatch
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