Infant and Child Health

Jump to another page... Introduction Child restraints Household fire escape plan Routine checkups Child routine dental checkup Child mortality—years of potential life lost Immunizations Infant Mortality Fertility in women ages 15 to 44 Prenatal Care in first trimester Late or no prenatal care Low birth weight Fertility in females 12 to 17 years of age Prenatal care among teenage mothers Late or no prenatal care (teen) Low birth weight (teen) Prenatal care for single mothers Late or no prenatal care (single) Low birth weight (single)

Routine checkups

Routine checkups monitor a child’s health and help prevent minor health issues from becoming major problems. Children receive immunizations and other preventive care at routine visits. Data were not collected in the 2004 or 2005 BRFSS about routine child checkups but concern remains important. The 2002 survey sample indicating whether or not children in Bexar County had an annual checkup was too small to report percentages in three of the six sectors^ß. To provide reliable estimates of rates numbers were aggregated to reflect rates for the sectors in the northern and southern parts of Bexar County. Ninety-one percent of children had visited a health provider in the past year. Slightly more children in the southern part of Bexar County had a routine checkup in the past year than children in the northern part of the county. The difference between north and south is smaller than the ± 4 percent sampling error for the survey and cannot be said to be different.

Child routine dental checkup

Child oral health is an important but overlooked aspect of child health. The Surgeon General reports that dental caries occur five times more frequently than childhood asthma, and named it the most chronic disease among children.²¹ Routine visits for dental care are as important as physical checkups for children. Data were not collected in the 2004 or 2005 BRFSS about routine child dental visits. In 2002, 77 percent of children in Bexar County had seen a dentist in the past year. Again, sample size prevents showing data for all sectors. In the southern part of Bexar County, 79 percent of children had seen a dentist in the past year. A slightly lower rate of 76 percent (but within the ± 4 percent sampling error) of children in the northern part of Bexar County had seen a dentist in the past year. Increased community efforts, in conjunction with dental providers to emphasize the importance of dental care, could help improve the number of children receiving routine dental care. Recent increases in dental services at Federally Qualified Health Centers such as those at CommuniCare Health Centers, Dr. Frank Bryant Health Center and the Ricardo Salinas Health Center have increased the access to dental care of children in Bexar County.

Child mortality—years of potential life lost

The age-adjusted mortality rate for all causes of death for children (age 0 to 18) is 16 per 100,000 population. Two-thirds of childhood deaths occur in the first four years of life. These deaths are mostly related to complications related to birth and sudden infant death syndrome. When childhood mortality is considered from the prospective of years of potential life lost, 3,578 years of life are lost for 100,000 population. This is an average of 60 years for each child death. Furthermore, this reflects the fact that most childhood deaths occur during the first four years of life. More years of life are lost to childhood deaths in the southern sectors of the county ranging from 4,766 years lost in the West to 3,731 years lost per 100,000 population in the South. In the northern sectors, childhood mortality ranges from 3,320 years lost in the Northwest to 2,859 years of life lost per 100,000 population in the Northeast sector. The leading cause of death for children under 19 years is injury. Automobile crashes claims more lives than any other injury.

Immunizations

Childhood immunizations offer reliable protection against unnecessary illness, disability and death. It is important that children receive specific immunizations at an early age in order to obtain the optimal protective benefits afforded by vaccines. Data on immunizations for Bexar County children under 3 years of age from the National Immunization Survey (NIS) was available. However, this information was not available for the Bexar County sectors. A Healthy People 2010 goal is that 90 percent of the children in a community will have received the following vaccines before their third birthday:

4 doses diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine
3 doses polio vaccine
1 dose measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine
3 doses Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine
3 doses hepatitis B (hep B) vaccine
1 dose varicella (chicken pox) vaccine

In 2004, the NIS estimated that the following percentages of Bexar County three-year olds were immunized for the series of vaccines indicated:

As indicated in the table below, the NIS found that in 2004, 74 percent of the children studied in Bexar County were fully immunized by their third birthday. This compares favorably to the statewide estimate and to other metropolitan areas in Texas, the Bexar County immunization rate lags the national level by over 7 percent and is well below the target set by Healthy People 2010. Most would agree that Bexar County could do much better in this area, especially in communities that are poor and difficult to reach.