Policies to Promote Child Health - Future of Children
Policies to Promote
Child Health
VO LUM E 2 5
3
NUMBER 1
SPRIN G 2015
Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue
11
How Healthy Are Our Children?
35
Promoting Health in Early Childhood
65
Child Health and Access to Medical Care
91
Food Assistance Programs and Child Health
111
Preventing and Treating Child Mental Health Problems
135
Housing, Neighborhoods, and Children¡¯s Health
155
The Role of the Family and Family-Centered Programs and Policies
177
Children¡¯s Health in a Legal Framework
A COLLABORATION OF THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
The Future of Children promotes effective policies and programs for children by
providing timely, objective information based on the best available research.
Senior Editorial Staff
Journal Staff
Sara McLanahan
Editor-in-Chief
Princeton University
Director, Center for Research on
Child Wellbeing, and William S. Tod
Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs
Kris McDonald
Associate Editor
Princeton University
Janet M. Currie
Senior Editor
Princeton University
Director, Center for Health and Wellbeing;
Chair, Department of Economics;
and Henry Putnam Professor of Economics
and Public Affairs
Ron Haskins
Senior Editor
Brookings Institution
Senior Fellow, Cabot Family Chair, and
Co-Director, Center on Children and Families
Cecilia Elena Rouse
Senior Editor
Princeton University
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public
and International Affairs, Katzman-Ernst
Professor in the Economics of Education,
and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs
Jon Wallace
Managing Editor
Princeton University
Lisa Markman-Pithers
Outreach Director
Princeton University
Associate Director, Education
Research Section
Stephanie Cencula
Outreach Coordinator
Brookings Institution
Regina Leidy
Communications Coordinator
Princeton University
Tracy Merone
Administrator
Princeton University
Isabel Sawhill
Senior Editor
Brookings Institution
Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Center on
Children and Families
The Future of Children would like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and
the Spitzer Family Foundation for their generous support.
ISSN: 1054-8289
ISBN: 978-0-9857863-3-5
VOLUME 25
NUMBER 1
SPRING 2015
Policies to Promote Child Health
3
Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue
by Janet Currie and Nancy Reichman
11
How Healthy Are Our Children?
by Sara Rosenbaum and Robert Blum
35
Promoting Health in Early Childhood by Maya Rossin-Slater
65
Child Health and Access to Medical Care
by Lindsey Leininger and Helen Levy
91
Food Assistance Programs and Child Health by Craig Gundersen
111
Preventing and Treating Child Mental Health Problems
by Alison Cuellar
135
Housing, Neighborhoods, and Children¡¯s Health
by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Sherry Glied
155
The Role of the Family and Family-Centered Programs and Policies
by Lawrence M. Berger and Sarah A. Font
177
Children¡¯s Health in a Legal Framework
by Clare Huntington and Elizabeth Scott
Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue
Policies to Promote Child Health:
Introducing the Issue
Janet Currie and Nancy Reichman
A
large volume of high-quality
research shows that unhealthy
children grow up to be
unhealthy adults, that poor
health and low income go hand
in hand, and that the consequences of both
poverty and poor health make large demands
on public coffers. Thus promoting children¡¯s
health is essential for improving the population¡¯s health; policies to prevent children¡¯s
health problems can be wise investments;
and policy makers should implement carefully designed policies and programs to
promote child health.
According to the World Health Organization,
health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity. We view
health in this broad sense, encompassing
both physical and mental health indicators.
And because some children¡¯s health problems
may go undiagnosed or take years to become
apparent, we also consider conditions that
predict poor child health (such as low birth
weight) and behaviors that affect health (such
as substance use).
We view policies in a broad sense as well.
Because an array of physical and social
factors¡ªincluding unsafe housing, pollution, food insecurity, and maltreatment,
all of which are related to poverty¡ªcan
adversely affect health, many types of policies are important for child health. Thus we
consider the effects of policies that don¡¯t
specifically focus on health (such as cash
or in-kind assistance, or parenting education programs) in addition to policies that
focus on access to health care or the direct
provision of medical services. Relevant policies come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from large federal programs such as
Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) to more modest local public health initiatives.
U.S. child health policy is thus a patchwork
of efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. Many policies aim specifically to improve
child health, while others have different
goals but could indirectly affect the health of
children. Some health-related policies target
children directly, attempting to treat health
problems once they occur or to prevent them
Janet Currie is the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, chair of the Department of Economics, and director of the
Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. Nancy Reichman is a professor of pediatrics at Rutgers University¡¯s Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School and a visiting professor of economics at Princeton University.
VOL. 25 / NO. 1 / S PR ING 2015
3
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