Here in Australia we get a very sanitised view of the USA. We are liberally supplied with TV soaps that depict what life is like in the USA. If you are a teenager or young adult living in California, which is most people if the soaps are anything to go by, then then you are healthy, white, attractive and spend a lot of time on the beach. There are others of course, they live in Seattle or New York or some such city but they are also fit and healthy although sometimes not white.

One thing that comes through is that, generally speaking, USA is a healthy place for children to be raised. New findings by Barbara Starfield of John Hopkins School of Public Health shake this perception. Collating information from the World Health Organisation and International Health Behaviour In School-Aged Children Study she shows that America has overall the least healthy children of any first world nation. In fact child health in the US is so bad that it almost qualifies as a third world nation by these measures.

Some key areas that drag the US down are:

Infant and Child Mortality: 26 countries have lower neonatal mortality than the US and 23 have lower child mortality.

Immunisation of Child against common preventable diseases: 68 countries did better.

Teenage Health:
out of the 28 industrialised countries the USA rated

Psychological Wellbeing: 18th
Chronic Illness: 27th
Taking Sleeping Tablets Regularly: 24th
Healthy Lifestyle: 17th
Junk food consumption: 24th

Barabara points to two primary factors that she considers are the major contributors to the unenviable position in which the US finds itself.

Firstly that United States is the most income-inequitable country among the industrialized nations, that is the rich are much richer and the poor are much poorer in the USA.

Secondly the niggardliness of health policies and consequent heath services. The United States is the only industrialized country to lack universal health insurance.

David Williamson of University of North Carolina throws in his two bobs worth by observing that since 1977 consumption of soft drinks has risen by 137% and during the same period consumption of milk has fallen 38%. Milk is far more nutritious and contributes to bone density through its high calcium content. This one fact combined with the increasingly sedantry nature of children will mean long term increases in diabetes and bone related problems such as osteoporosis in these children.

Of course, if you are reading this then you are literate and have reasonable computer skills so you are probably not in the group of extremely poor who are dragging the USA statistics down to third world level. Accordingly you probably don't care enough to do anything about it, not that you could anyway, right. Hang on! I heard a rumour about an upcoming election in the States. Perhaps it is time to direct that massive intelligence of yours to improving the US for all US citizens and cast a considered and intelligent vote this election.

Read more of Barabara Starfields research here.
Read more of David Williamsons research here.