283: New National Children’s Health Survey

ROBERT JOHNSON:

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, October 14th, 2022. I'm Robert Johnson.

Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

CHRISSIE JULIANO:

So nationally, we've only seen about 4% of the eligible population who's received their bivalent booster so far. In polling, about a third of adults and nearly half of seniors say they plan to get it eventually.

JOHNSON:

Chrissie Juliano is executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, talking about public interest in the new COVID-19 booster. The Coalition hosted a media briefing on COVID vaccines Wednesday.

Dr. Raynard Washington also joined the call. He's the public health director in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

RAYNARD WASHINGTON:

Certainly 4% is not a big number. And I wanna manage expectations that we're not shooting for 100% necessarily, because there are some differences relative to who should get it right now and who should wait to get it over time.

Of course, we want ideally want everyone to get it over time, but immediately it's not expected that everyone would.

JOHNSON:

Dr. David Persse is the chief medical officer at the Houston Health Department. He says communication is a challenge because of the way people get their information today, but he adds it's critical they hear about the new booster given what's happening in Europe.

DAVID PERSSE:

So, if you look at and see what's going on in Europe, there are multiple nations in Europe where it looks like BA.5 is coming up again. Perhaps that's due to people dropping their guard, perhaps that's due to weather change, perhaps that's due to people not getting boosters.

But the numbers in several European countries are starting to go up, and we're hearing rumblings about that perhaps in the northeast United States.

JOHNSON:

Dr. Washington reminded the news media what public health people know from experience.

WASHINGTON:

Well, I know, again, some people believe the pandemic's over. We still have people going to the hospital, we still have people dying. And so, we've gotta remain vigilant in making sure that we're clear in our messaging and that we're encouraging everyone in our communities to stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines.

JOHNSON:

You can read more using the link in the show notes.

Public health departments are doing everything they can to get people vaccinated. Many have found success in partnerships.

O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER:

Community action agencies are an ideal complement to public health's mission to address social determinants of health.

ASTHO is working with the National Community Action Partnership and five agencies in the Partnering for Vaccine Equity Project. The project aims to increase acceptance in uptake of vaccines among racial and ethnic minority groups and rural communities.

You can read more about these partnerships in the show notes.

JOHNSON:

The National Survey of Children's Health is now online.

Dr. Reem Ghandour is with HRSA and directs the survey.

REEM GHANDOUR:

So, this really gives you the opportunity to compare how your state is doing compared to another state, how your state's doing compared to the nation.

JOHNSON:

The survey is the largest annual review of the health and wellbeing of kids in the U.S.

Ghandour says this time the survey quizzed parents about the impact of COVID-19 on their children's healthcare.

GHANDOUR:

So, what we did see is that about a quarter of kids ages zero to three did have a missed preventive visit in 2021, and about a third of kids older than that had a missed or delayed preventive checkup.

So, I think maybe we were all hoping that, after 2020, things might start to get back to normal. But at least what we're initially seeing is that, in 2021, there's still a fair bit of missed basic preventive care. That was particularly true for kids with special healthcare needs.

JOHNSON:

Ghandour says that data is gathered to help public health leaders with planning and budgeting.

GHANDOUR:

We know that everybody's doing more with less, and so having timely data—we come out of the field in January and we release in October. So, we try to make that time where practitioners can get really timely data that really gives them a snapshot of what's going on in their state and in the nation, and they can use that to prioritize their investments.

JOHNSON:

If there's something missing or if a jurisdiction needs more data, Ghandour says the survey team wants to help.

GHANDOUR:

So, what we've done is we've offered states the opportunity to work with our senior epidemiologists and folks at—survey methodologists at the Census Bureau to create kind a custom over sample to specifically meet their research needs.

JOHNSON:

You can access the survey online. There's a link in the show notes.

Finally today, Connecticut health commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani is one of the Hartford Business Journal's 2022 Power 25 Health Care honorees.

The list identifies leaders who've made an impact on public health and the healthcare industry. This is the third year for the list that honors those selected by the Business Journal's news team. You can read more using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.