The has deteriorated over the past 17 years, with kids today more likely to have , chronic diseases and mental health problems like depression, says.
Much of what researchers found was already known, but the study paints a comprehensive picture by examining various aspects of children鈥檚 physical and mental health at the same time.
鈥淭he surprising part of the study wasn鈥檛 any with any single statistic; it was that there鈥檚 170 indicators, eight data sources, all showing the same thing: a generalized decline in kids鈥� health,鈥� said Dr. Christopher Forrest, one of the authors of the study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought children's health to the forefront of the national policy conversation, unveiling in May that described kids as undernourished and overmedicated, and raised concerns about their lack of physical activity. But the Trump administration's 鈥� including cuts to , and 鈥� are not likely to reverse the trend, according to outside experts who reviewed Monday鈥檚 study.
鈥淭he health of kids in America is not as good as it should be, not as good as the other countries, and the current policies of this administration are definitely going to make it worse,鈥� said Dr. Frederick Rivara, a pediatrician and researcher at the Seattle Children's Hospital and UW Medicine in Seattle. He co-authored .
Forrest and his colleagues analyzed surveys, electronic health records from 10 pediatric health systems and international mortality statistics. Among their findings:
鈥� Obesity rates for U.S. children 2-19 years old rose from 17% in 2007-2008 to about 21% in 2021-2023.
鈥� A U.S. child in 2023 was 15% to 20% more likely than a U.S. child in 2011 to have a chronic condition such as anxiety, depression or sleep apnea, according to data reported by parents and doctors.
鈥� Annual prevalence rates for 97 chronic conditions recorded by doctors rose from about 40% in 2011 to about 46% in 2023.
鈥� Early onset of menstruation, trouble sleeping, limitations in activity, physical symptoms, depressive symptoms and loneliness also increased among American kids during the study period.
鈥� American children were around 1.8 times more likely to die than kids in other high-income countries from 2007-2022. Being born premature and sudden unexpected death were much higher among U.S. infants, and firearm-related incidents and motor vehicle crashes were much more common among 1-19-year-old American kids than among those the same age in other countries examined.
The research points to bigger problems with America鈥檚 health, said Forrest, who is a pediatrician at the Children鈥檚 Hospital of Philadelphia.
鈥淜ids are the canaries in the coal mine,鈥� he said. 鈥� When kids鈥� health changes, it鈥檚 because they鈥檙e at increased vulnerability, and it reflects what鈥檚 happening in society at large.鈥�
The timing of the study, he said, is 鈥渃ompletely fortuitous." Well before the 2024 presidential election, Forrest was working on a book about thriving over the life span and couldn鈥檛 find this sort of comprehensive data on children鈥檚 health.
The datasets analyzed have some limitations and may not be applicable to the full U.S. population, noted Dr. James Perrin, a pediatrician and spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, who wasn't involved in the study.
鈥淭he basic finding is true,鈥� he said.
The editorial published alongside the study said while the administration's MAHA movement is bringing welcome attention to chronic diseases, "it is pursuing other policies that will work against the interests of children.鈥� Those include eliminating injury prevention and , canceling investments in a campaign addressing sudden infant death and 鈥渇ueling vaccine hesitancy among parents that may lead to a ," authors wrote.
Officials from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Forrest said risks highlighted by the MAHA report, such as eating too much ultra-processed food, are real but miss the complex reality driving trends in children's health.
鈥淲e have to step back and take some lessons from the ecological sustainability community and say: Let鈥檚 look at the ecosystem that kids are growing up in. And let鈥檚 start on a kind of neighborhood-by-neighborhood, city-by-city basis, examining it,鈥� he said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Laura Ungar And Jonel Aleccia, The Associated Press
