A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds the health of our children has deteriorated significantly over the last 18 years. Dr. Céline Gounder joins to discuss.

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A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that the health of children in the United States has significantly worsened over the past 18 years. The study examined health indicators for children from birth to age 19 between 2007 and 2023, revealing that American infants are nearly twice as likely to die as those in other high-income countries, often due to prematurity or sudden unexpected infant death. For older children and teens, firearm injuries and motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of death, with American youth facing a much higher risk of gun violence than their international peers.

The report also notes increasing rates of childhood obesity, premature puberty, and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Experts attribute these trends to policy decisions, including proposed cuts to child health programs and a lack of universal health coverage. The study suggests that stronger social safety nets, stricter regulations, and robust public health systems in other high-income countries contribute to better child health outcomes.

American children's health has sharply declined, report finds

A big wake-up call for parents and the nation. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds the health of our children has deteriorated significantly over the last 18 years. Dr. Celine Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health, joins us now in tonight's interview. So walk us through the method and way that they came up with this information, and what does it mean? What are the takeaways? So they looked at a wide range of health indicators for kids in the U.S., so between birth and age 19, between 2007 and 2023. And what they found is that infants in the U.S. are nearly twice as likely to die as those in other high-income countries, often from complications of prematurity or sudden unexpected infant death. What are some of the risk factors for prematurity? Well, chronic medical conditions in the mom, like diabetes or high blood pressure, as well as socioeconomic and racial disparities. And then for older kids and teens, they found that firearm injuries and motor vehicle crashes were the top causes of death. And in fact, American youth are 15 times as likely or more likely to die from gun violence than kids their own age abroad. Wow. So very telling. The author of this said that we are, quote, failing our kids. Why does he say that? I mean, we hear the statistics, but, you know, as a parent, what are we to do? Yeah, so this is a policy choice. And what makes this even more alarming is this is the data we've seen up until 2023. We are seeing a federal budget for 2026 that is looking to cut child health programs, especially those at the CDC. That's where a lot of these have been sitting until now. So, for example, work on preventing sudden unexpected infant death, reducing premature births, monitoring for pediatric injury trends. All of that has been at the CDC until now is getting dramatically cut. And what is being moved to the Administration for a Healthy America is nowhere near, doesn't come near replacing what the CDC had been doing. And in fact, there's zero funding for firearm injury prevention research at AHA, the Administration for a Healthy America. Is this a problem that is unique to children in this country? Well, we are seeing much higher rates of infant death, of teen death in this country that is completely out of line with what you see in other high income countries. In addition, we're seeing increasing rates of things like obesity. One in five kids in this country is now obese. We're seeing premature puberty, which has various other risk factors associated with that. Depression, anxiety. So our kids are not doing well relative to what kids look like in other countries. So we have this information. What should parents do? What should doctors be doing? You talk about funding being taken away to address this. So what's next? Well, what sets us apart from other countries? And this is not a question of genetics or biology. Again, this is a political problem. It's a policy solution. Most other high income nations have universal health coverage, at least no cost care for kids. They have stronger social safety nets, so things like child care, housing, food. They also have stricter regulation on firearms and road safety and much more robust public health systems that prioritize prevention. So it's really on us to decide. There's not a silver bullet. There's not three tips I can give you to fix this problem. At least the information is a start. The information is a start, and make your voice heard what you care about.

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