By Erin Carson
The Daily Herald
Children in the Roanoke Valley aren’t expected to live as long as those in other parts of North Carolina who grow up in better socioeconomic conditions, according to a new report, but leaders in public health are hoping to fix that.
“These are not intractable issues. When we make really smart and strategic investments in child health, we can have positive outcomes,” said Laila Bell, NC Child director of Research and Data. NC Child is an advocacy group for children in North Carolina that compiled data cards for each county in the state.
“There are things we can do and have done effectively to improve child health,” Bell said.
According to the most recent NC Child report, children in Halifax and Northampton counties have a life expectancy seven and five years shorter, respectively, than kids in the wealthier counties in the state. Warren County’s children are three years shy of the best performing counties. Life expectancy is 74.3 years for a baby born today in Halifax County, 76.6 years for a baby born in Northampton and 78.8 years for a baby born in Warren County. By comparison, a baby born in Orange County has a life expectancy of 81.7, the highest projection in the state.
The report shows health disparities not only exist between counties, but also among demographics within them.
“The first thing is obviously that there are some pretty dramatic differences in life expectancy across the state,” Bell said. “These kinds of disparities and gaps in life expectancy really are a reflection of the children’s access to types of factors that help children achieve and maintain good health.”
Cardra Burns, director of Halifax County Public Health System, said the numbers weren’t surprising, but reiterated issues that need attention.
“It just further shows the need to change policy and support public policy and interventions around child health,” Burns said. “To see that something like one in two children lives in poverty in our county, that is an eye-opening number. That directly affects child health. Changing our policy is very important for the sake of our children and their futures.”
Food insecurity
Burns said some steps toward positively impacting these outcomes involve improving living conditions for children and families in the area. She said expanding Medicaid to cover more people and working to reduce food insecurity rates would both be positive steps. Food insecurity means people don’t always know where their next meal is coming from or don’t always have enough food to eat.
“Another alarming statistic was that 29.5 percent of children are estimated to be food insecure. How can we come together as a community to find a solution to help with the food insecurity issues?” Burns added. “Children without nutritious foods … We know that if they go to school, they’re not going to perform as well as they should if they’re hungry. How can we provide the food our children need after school hours?”
Northampton County saw similar food insecurity numbers, with 30.3 percent of children living in households that are considered food insecure. On top of that, 48.3 percent of children there live in poverty, according to the report.
In Warren County, 27.1 percent of children live in food insecure households and 37.2 live in poverty.
The report noted living in poverty contributes to health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and developmental delays.
Burns told The Daily Herald in a previous story about the county health rankings that socioeconomic factors weigh on health outcomes, and she reiterated after reading the report, everyone should be invested in improving those outcomes.
“Similar to what we discussed with county health rankings, it’s more than just Public Health. We all, as a community, have to work collectively to impact the health of our county, which includes our children,” she said.
Maternal health
Burns noted one area in which the report showed improvement in Halifax County was teen pregnancy rates. Although still higher than the North Carolina average, the rate has decreased by nearly 20 points since 2009. In 2009, there were 44.6 pregnancies per 1,000 girls age 15-17 in Halifax County. In 2013, the most recent year studied for the report, there were 26.3 pregnancies per 1,000 girls in the same age range. The statewide average was 30.1 in 2009 and 16.6 in 2013. Burns pointed to a number of outreach programs as the cause for that reduction.
“I think with the efforts we’ve been making with teen pregnancy, we’re seeing an impact,” she said.
The teen pregnancy rates in Northampton and Warren counties weren’t included in the report because the sample size was listed as being too small for stable results.
John White, acting health director for Northampton County, said small sample sizes could make some issues in his county seem drastic when they may not be.
“While we recognize that we need to see improvements in maternal and child health in our area, we caution that for many of the parameters these studies look at, our small sample number may skew these numbers, and make some of these statistics less accurate as to the true picture of conditions in Northampton, or any other small county,” White said.
Disparities within counties
Health gaps within the three counties were broken down in a section of the report that showed in-county health disparities among different demographics.
“There are some very troubling and persistent disparities that affect specific groups. They face a number of barriers that serve as roadblocks toward healthy development,” Bell said. “Structural inequality, wealth and income gaps, and access to things like quality medical services and high quality education, do mean many African-American, American Indian and Latino children are facing a number of challenges that affect their ability to access resources that support good health.”
For Halifax County, 39.4 percent of all children were born into poverty in 2013, but when those children are separated by race, inequities are revealed. Fifty-four percent of African-American children, 45.2 percent of American Indian children and 30.5 percent of Latino children live in poverty, compared with 14.3 percent of white children and 14.6 percent of Asian children.
In Northampton County, the differences by demographic were present but not as stark. Of all of the children in that county, 48.3 percent lived in poverty in 2013. Broken down by demographic, that’s 54 percent of African-American children and 35.5 percent of Latino children, compared with 27.5 percent of white children. Percentages for American Indian and Asian children in poverty were not included for Northampton.
Warren County saw 37.2 percent of children living in poverty. The demographic breakdown showed 44.8 percent of African-American children, 45.2 percent of American Indian children and 37.1 percent of Latino children lived in poverty, compared to 18 percent of white children. Information on Asian children living in poverty was not listed for Warren County.
Burns said to tackle several of the issues outlined in the report, she supports the next steps presented by NC Child.
“I definitely recommend what NC Child has laid out,” she said. “Expand Medicaid to cover adults in the federal poverty line. Support interventions to reduce infant mortality. Our community comes in in investing in early intervention services in public health. We know an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
More statistics from the report can be seen by following the linkhttp://bit.ly/1FeQYRH.
Source: Gloomy Future: New NC Child Report Sheds Light on Valley Kids’ Struggles.