Obesity, Chronic Illnesses, And Mental Health: Study Says US Children Are Sicker Than Ever

The foundation of a nation's health and prosperity lies in the well-being of its children. However, a concerning trend has emerged in the US, where children's health has declined over the past 17 years, with alarming increases in obesity, chronic diseases, and mental health issues like depression, threatening their future and the nation's prosperity.

The study titled as, "Trends in US Children's Mortality, Chronic Conditions, Obesity, Functional Status, and Symptoms" suggests that, "the health of US children has worsened across a wide range of health indicator domains over the past 17 years. The broad scope of this deterioration highlights the need to identify and address the root causes of this fundamental decline in the nation's health."

Much of what researchers found was already known, but the study paints a comprehensive picture by examining various aspects of children's physical and mental health at the same time.

"The surprising part of the study wasn't any with any single statistic; it was that there's 170 indicators, eight data sources, all showing the same thing: a generalized decline in kids' health," 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 a much-anticipated "Make America Healthy Again" report that described kids as undernourished and overmedicated, and raised concerns about their lack of physical activity. But the Trump administration's actions - including cuts to federal health agencies, Medicaid and scientific research - are not likely to reverse the trend, according to outside experts who reviewed Monday's study.

"The 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," said Dr. Frederick Rivara, a pediatrician and researcher at the Seattle Children's Hospital and UW Medicine in Seattle. He co-authored an editorial accompanying the new study.

Forrest and his colleagues analyzed surveys, electronic health records from 10 pediatric health systems and international mortality statistics.

Among their findings:

1. Obesity rates for US children 2-19 years old rose from 17% in 2007-2008 to about 21% in 2021-2023.
2. A US 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.
3. Annual prevalence rates for 97 chronic conditions recorded by doctors rose from about 40% in 2011 to about 46% in 2023.

Early onset of menstruation, trouble sleeping, limitations in activity, physical symptoms, depressive symptoms and loneliness also increased among American kids during the study period.

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.