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1
HEALTH ISSUES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Health in early childhood sets the stage for a
healthy life.
2
Emotional Well-Being

• Preschoolers with very stressful home lives
  suffer more respiratory and intestinal illnesses,
  as well as unintentional injuries.

3

• Sleep Habits and Problems
• Sleep contributes to body growth, since GH is
  released during sleeping hours.
• About 20 to 25 percent of preschoolers experience
  difficulty falling and staying asleep. Persistent
  sleep problems may be a sign of illness.

4

• Nutrition
• Young children are often picky eaters. This is
  adaptive as young children are still learning
  which items are safe to eat and which are not.
• Because caloric intake is reduced, preschoolers
  need a high-quality diet.
• Insufficient amounts of iron, calcium, vitamin C,
  and vitamin A are the most common diet
  deficiencies of the preschool years.

5

• Infectious Disease
• Infectious Disease and Malnutrition
• Disease is a major cause of malnutrition, and,
  through it, affects physical growth.
• Immunization
• Overall 24 percent of American preschoolers lack
  essential immunizations, a rate that rises to 40
  percent for poverty stricken children.
• In 1994, all medically uninsured American
  children were guaranteed free immunizations, a
  program that has led to steady improvement in
  early childhood immunization rates.
• Research in Europe and the United States
  indicates that childhood illness rises with
  child-care attendance.

6

• Childhood Injuries
• Auto accidents, drownings, and burns are the most
  common injuries during early childhood.
• Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of
  death among children over 1 year of age.

7
HEALTH ISSUES OF SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN

• Good nutrition and rapid development of the
  bodys immune system work together to protect
  against disease.
• Poverty continues to be a powerful predictor of
  ill health during middle childhood.

8
Vision and Hearing

• The most common vision problem in middle
  childhood is myopia, or nearsightedness.
• By the end of the school years, nearly 25 percent
  of children are affected.
• Myopia is affected by both heredity and
  experience.
• During middle childhood, the eustachian tube
  becomes longer, narrower, and more slanted as a
  result, otitis media (middle ear infection)
  becomes less frequent.

9
Malnutrition

• School-age children need a well-balanced,
  plentiful diet to provide energy for successful
  learning in school and increased physical
  activity.
• Eating an evening meal with parents leads to
  healthier eating habits.
• Readily available, healthy between-meal snacks
  can help meet school-age childrens nutritional
  needs.

10
Malnutrition cont.

• By middle childhood, the effects of prolonged and
  serious malnutrition are apparent in retarded
  physical growth, low intelligence test scores,
  poor motor coordination, inattention, and
  distractibility.
• Growth-stunted school-age children respond with
  greater fear to stressful situations.
• Animal evidence reveals that a deficient diet
  alters the production of neurotransmitters in the
  brain.
• When malnutrition persists for many years,
  permanent damage is done.

11
Obesity

• Over 25 percent of American children suffer from
  obesity, a greater-than-20-percent increase over
  average body weight, based on the childs age,
  sex, and physical build.
• From 1980 to 2000, the rate of obesity in the
  American population climbed from 15 to 27
  percent. Obesity rates are also increasing
  rapidly in developing countries as urbanization
  shifts the population toward sedentary lifestyles
  and diets high in meats and refined foods.
• Over 80 percent of obese youngsters remain
  overweight as adults.

12
Obesity
13
Illnesses

• Children experience a somewhat higher rate of
  illness during the first 2 years of elementary
  school than they will later on, due to exposure
  to sick children and the fact that their immune
  system is still developing.
• The most frequent cause of school absence and
  childhood hospitalization is asthma, a condition
  in which the bronchial tubes are highly
  sensitive.
• The number of children with asthma has more than
  doubled over the past thirty years.
• Boys, African-American children, and children who
  were born underweight, whose parents smoke, and
  who live in poverty are at greatest risk.

14
Illnesses cont.

• About 2 percent of American children have chronic
  illnesses that are more severe than asthma, such
  as sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, diabetes,
  arthritis, cancer, and AIDS.
• A strong link between parent psychological
  adjustment, good family functioning, and child
  well-being exists for chronically ill children,
  just as it does for physically healthy children.

15
Unintentional Injuries

• The frequency of injuries increases steadily over
  middle childhood into adolescence, with boys
  showing a higher rate than girls.
• Motor vehicle and bicycle collisions account for
  most of the rise in injury incidence.
• As children spend more time away from parents and
  range further from home, safety education becomes
  more important.
• Wearing protective helmets is a vital safety
  intervention.
• The greatest risk takers tend to have parents who
  do not act as safety conscious models or who try
  to enforce rules by using punitive or
  inconsistent discipline.
• Highly active boys remain particularly
  susceptible to injury in middle childhood.

16
Unintentional Injuries cont.
17
HEALTH ISSUES OF ADOLESCENCE

• As adolescents are granted greater autonomy,
  personal decision making becomes important, in
  health as well as other areas.

18
Nutritional Needs

• During the growth spurt, boys require about 2,700
  calories a day and much more protein. Girls
  require about 2,200 calories and somewhat less
  protein than boys.
• This increase in nutritional requirements comes
  at a time when the eating habits of many young
  people are the poorest.

• The most common nutritional problem of
  adolescence is iron deficiency.
• Most adolescents do not get enough calcium,
  riboflavin, and magnesium in their diets.
• Most fad diets are too limited in nutrients and
  calories to be healthy for fast-growing, active
  teenagers.

19
Serious Eating Disturbances

• Girls who reach puberty early, who are very
  dissatisfied with their body images, and who grow
  up in homes where concern with weight and
  thinness is especially strong are at risk for
  developing eating problems.

20
Serious Eating Disturbances cont.

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which
  individuals starve themselves because of a
  compulsive fear of getting fat.
• Anorexics have an extremely distorted body image.
  Even after they become severely underweight, they
  conclude that they are fat.
• Anorexics lose between 25 and 50 percent of their
  body weight and appear painfully thin, and as
  many as 10 percent die of the disorder.

21
Serious Eating Disturbances cont.

• Bulimia Nervosa
• Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder in which
  individuals go on eating binges followed by
  deliberate vomiting and other purging techniques
  such as heavy doses of laxatives.
• The repeated vomiting causes erosion of tooth
  enamel, and can cause life-threatening damage to
  the throat and stomach.
• Bulimia is much more common than anorexia
  nervosa. About 1 to 3 percent of teenage girls
  are affected only 5 percent of bulimic girls
  have previously been anorexic.

22
Sexual Activity

• Contraceptive Use
• One-third to one-half of sexually active American
  teenagers do not use contraception at all or use
  it only occasionally.
• They do not do the kind of planning and decision
  making necessary to protect themselves from
  harmful outcomes.
• Adolescents lack of planning before sex may be
  attributed to concerns about others opinions of
  them. Intense self-reflection leads many
  adolescents to believe that they are unique and
  invulnerable to danger.

23
Sexual Activity cont.

• Teenagers who talk openly with their parents
  about sex are more likely to use birth control.
• Many teens are uncomfortable about asking parents
  questions about sex or contraception. In
  addition, many do not know where to get birth
  control counseling and devices.

24
Sexually Transmitted Disease

• Adolescents have the highest rates of sexually
  transmitted disease (STD) of any age group. One
  out of six sexually active teenagers contract an
  STD each year.
• Teenagers in greatest danger of STD are
  poverty-stricken young people who feel a sense of
  inferiority and hopelessness about their lives.
• The most serious STD is AIDS. Drug-abusing and
  homosexual adolescents account for most cases,
  but heterosexual spread has increased, especially
  among females.
• As a result of school courses and media
  campaigns, over 90 percent of high school
  students are aware of the basic facts about AIDS,
  but some hold false beliefs that put them at
  risk.

25
Pregnancy and Parenthood

• Each year, approximately 900,000 American
  teenagers become pregnant, 30,000 under the age
  of 15. Despite a steady decline since 1991, the
  adolescent pregnancy rate in the United States is
  higher than that of most other industrialized
  countries.
• The United States differs from other
  industrialized nations in that
• Effective sex education reaches fewer teenagers.
• Convenient, low-cost contraceptive services for
  adolescents are scarce.
• Many more families live in poverty, which
  encourages young people to take risks without
  considering the consequences of their behavior.

26
Pregnancy and Parenthood cont.

• Intervening with Adolescent Parents
• Young single mothers need health care for
  themselves and their children, encouragement to
  stay in school, job training, instruction in
  parenting and life management techniques, and
  high quality, affordable child care.
• Adolescent mothers also benefit from family
  relationships that are sensitive to their
  developmental needs.
• Programs focusing on fathers are attempting to
  increase their emotional and financial commitment
  to the baby.

27
Substance Use and Abuse

• By age 14, 56 percent of American young people
  have already tried smoking, 70 percent drinking,
  and 32 percent at least one illegal drug.
• These high figures represent a decade of decline
  in alcohol and drug use, followed by a steady
  increase during the past few years and than a
  slight drop.
• The majority of substance experimenters are
  psychologically healthy, sociable, and curious
  young people.

28
Injuries

• Motor vehicle collisions are the leading killer
  of adolescents, accounting for 42 percent of
  deaths between the ages of 15 and 19.
• The majority of other unintentional injuries are
  caused by firearms.
• A third form of adolescent injuryless prevalent
  but still serious and largely avoidableis sports
  related. Each year, about one-third of students
  involved in sports experience injuries that
  require medical treatment.
• Unrealistic demands by coaches are an important
  source of athletic injuries.