Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth

Abstract

The Committee on Evaluation of Children’s Health: Measures of Risk, Protective, and Promotional Factors for Assessing Child Health in the Community was formed to examine key issues regarding the definition and measurement of children’s health, influences that affect children’s health, and the optimal use of data on children’s health. Specifically, the committee was charged with considering these questions: 1. How is children’s health defined? Are these definitions appropriate? If not, what is an appropriate definition of children’s health? 2. What data and methods are being used to assess and monitor children’s health at the federal, state, and local levels? Are these data and methods adequate and appropriate? If not, what types of data and methods are needed and what are the strategies for their development and application? How could new technologies be used to link individual, family, community, and clinical data to assess and monitor children’s health? What are the technical challenges and limitations for linking such data? 3. What are the risk, protective, and promotional factors to children’s health, safety, and well-being? What data and methods are used to assess and monitor these factors? Are these data and methods adequate and appropriate? What new assessment tools or methods are needed and what are the strategies for their development and application? 4. Ideally, how should data be used to inform both policy and practice to ensure children’s health, safety, and well-being? What are the ethical considerations in obtaining such data and in their application?