Children living in the South are up to three times more likely to battle poor health and its consequences - including obesity, teen pregnancy and death - than those in all other regions of the United States, even if they receive the same medical care, a new University of Florida study reveals.
"Hurricane Katrina gave the world a glimpse of the disparities in the South," says Jeffrey Goldhagen, M.D., M.P.H., the study's lead author and an associate professor of community pediatrics at the UF College of Medicine - Jacksonville.
"Our research documents just how profoundly these disparities impact the health of children in the region."
The study, published recently in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to statistically relate region of residence to measures of child health, Goldhagen says.
The poor health outcomes researchers documented included low birthweight, teen pregnancy, death and other problems such as mental illness, asthma, obesity, tooth decay and school performance.
The remaining Deep South states, Kentucky and Florida, are in the lowest quarter.
The reasons for these risks are complex and are related to social, economic and other public policies in the South, he says.
"For the first time, disparities in race, gender, education, income and poverty are not the critical issues here," he adds.
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