Alignment Nashville, the Mayor's Office of Children and Youth and the Metro Public Health Department, along with a number of community partners have set strategic goals for improving the social, emotional and physical well-being of children in Nashville. These goals address the needs of children in the following areas: healthy beginnings (pre- and post- natal care and outcomes);children's access to primary care; healthy eating and active living; adolescent sexual responsibility; and behavioral health/social-emotional learning.

 

The following are the key findings used to select the strategic goals for improving children's health; they were taken from the Metro Public Health Department's Strategic Plan (1) and the Children and Youth Master Plan for Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County (2-11).

1. Babies born too early (<37 complete weeks of pregnancy) are less likely than full term infants to be healthy and ready to learn when it is time to start school. Premature birth is the number one contributor to infant deaths in Nashville/Davidson County. Research has shown that improving the health of women prior to pregnancy is the most effective way to decrease preterm births and improve birth outcomes. 
2. At least one third of young children do not receive the recommended number of well-child visits with the percentage increasing with age.
3. 18% of youth in poverty and 22% of Latino youth are uninsured, 23 % are underinsured and 30% of young adults (19-21) do not have health insurance.
4. Tennessee’s childhood obesity rate is 20.6%, which is the 6th highest in the US (F as in Fat Report, 2010). Davidson County exceeds TN averages with 26% of children and youth being classified as overweight or obese (Metro Public Health Dept).
5. 78.2% of high school youth do not engage in at least one hour of physical activity a day, which is the Surgeon General’s recommendation (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007).
6. 64.8% of youth say they have engaged in alcohol consumption. Almost 24% of these youth report that they had their first drink of alcohol (other than a few sips) under the age of 13 (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007).
7. Almost 20% of youth reported at least one incident of binge drinking (5 or more drinks in a couple of hours) in the past 30 days (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007).
8. 53% of youth have tried smoking and 13.7% of youth report having been a regular smoker (every day for at least 30 days) (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007).
9. 47.4% of Davidson County high school youth have had sexual intercourse, and 17.1% of report the age of sexual initiation at 13 years old or younger (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007).
10. 9.5% of Davidson County youth report sexual coercion in dating.
11. The rate of teen pregnancy in Davidson County is 5.5% compared to 3.4% in Tennessee (Kids Count Data Center, 2007).

 

 

Nashville Public Television’s Children’s Health Crisis project is a three-year initiative built around a series of seven documentaries on the state of children’s health in Tennessee. The project launched in 2009 in response to the increased number of children facing risks from poor or non-existent prenatal care, the rising epidemic of childhood obesity, misinformation about vaccinations, mental health issues, and adolescent sexuality. View information on NPT's Children Health Crisis, including  links to the six additional documentaries.

 

For more information on Children's Health in Nashville visit:

 

 

 

Family, Infant, and Youth Division (FYI)