The National Survey of Children's Health & Childhood Obesity; USA & Delaware, 2016-2021
Date
2023-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research
Abstract
The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which is an Agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NSCH examines the physical and emotional health of children between 0 and 17 years of age and is designed to provide estimates representative of the nation and individual states. NSCH places special emphasis on such factors of children’s well-being as health care, neighborhood characteristics, school, and after-school experiences, etc. The U.S. Census Bureau has been conducting the Survey since 2016 after it underwent a redesign in 2015, which was driven by declining response rates and a decrease in the number of households that had landline telephones. At the moment, the survey uses a two‐phase multimode data collection design. The new design combines the former NSCH and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) into the current NSCH. The National Survey of Children’s Health contains over 300 indicators and survey items for child and family health and well-being. A subset of child and family health measures refers to Physical, Oral Health and Functional Status. Within this subset, there are indicators pertaining to children’s weight. Respondents are asked, e.g., whether a doctor or other health care provider has ever told them that their child is overweight, and whether they are concerned about the child’s weight. In addition, the weight status of the child based on Body Mass Index (BMI) is provided in either 4 categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese) or 3 categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight/or obese).
Description
Keywords
Childhood weight status, Body Mass Index, Diseases associated with obesity, Morbidity, Preventing childhood obesity