Teen Arrests, Pregnancies Show Decline

Orange County’s annual report on the state of children offers a mixed picture: One in three children lives in poverty, but juvenile arrests and teen pregnancies are down.

“If I had to give the condition of children in Orange County a letter grade, I would give them a C grade,” said Douglas C. Barton, the county’s behavioral health director.

Barton and other health-care professionals presented the eighth annual Report on the Conditions of Children in Orange County at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

The report was compiled over the last year by a 17-member advisory board, which reviewed criminal statistics, medical data and other resources. The numbers were from 2000 and, when available, 2001.

The study found some improvements. Juvenile arrests, which peaked at 19,164 in 1996, dropped 19% in 2000 to 15,528.

The teen birthrate has dropped to 43 per 1,000 teenagers in 2001 from a high of 62 per 1,000 in 1991.

Other highlights included:

* A slight increase in infants born with low birth weight.

Babies with low birth weight can be an indication that pregnant mothers are not getting access to any kind of medical care during their pregnancy, said Dr. Sudeep Kukreja, associate director at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

“These mothers are at a higher risk of delivering babies prematurely,” Kukreja said.

* Among sexually transmitted diseases, rates declined for gonorrhea and syphilis but rose for chlamydia.

Officials said more education and awareness programs are needed because health-care professionals have not focused on chlamydia as much as gonorrhea and syphilis.

Kukreja said most pregnant women are tested for gonorrhea and syphilis but not for chlamydia, unless they’re experiencing symptoms like discharge, itching and fever.

“It’s preventable,” he said. “But ultimately it ends up as an issue of health education, availability and access to health care.”

* About 15% of low-income children visiting health clinics in 2000 were overweight.

Since 1991, the rate of overweight children in the county has gone up by nearly 14%, much higher than the state rate, officials said. The concern is that overweight children are prone to medical and social problems.

Poor eating habits developed in childhood and adolescence may lead to such diseases as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension as adults, health-care professionals say.

According to the report, the greatest increases in overweight youth occurred between ages 10 and 12. There was a 228% increase for Asian/Pacific Islanders since 1991, followed by non-Hispanic whites with a 145% increase and Latinos with a 36% rise.

Those increases were most likely attributable to eating fast foods and getting calories from foods high in sugar and fat, said Dr. Margaret Beed, the county’s public health chief medical officer.

“Most of all, they’re sitting on the couch watching TV or playing Nintendo and there’s a whole lot of research with people about that,” Beed said.

“It’s not about dieting,” she said. “It’s about exercising and eating the right things.”

Of the county’s 768,419 children younger than 17, Barton said about 250,000 have no access to health insurance. “That’s astounding in a county this wealthy,” he said, adding that working poor often don’t earn health benefits.

Another sign of rising poverty is the number of children receiving school lunch subsidies. There were 190,979 in 2001-02, compared with 144,626 in 1994-95.