• Posted July 8, 2025

Kids’ Health in U.S. Has Gotten Worse Over the Past 17 Years, Study Finds

The health of American kids has worsened over the past 17 years, with more now struggling with obesity, mental health problems and chronic illness, a new study shows.

Researchers used electronic health records, surveys and international data to look at nearly 170 health indicators. The takeaway: Across nearly every area studied, U.S. kids’ health is getting worse.

“The surprising part of the study wasn’t any single statistic,” study author Dr. Christopher Forrest, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Associated Press. “It was that there’s 170 indicators, eight data sources, all showing the same thing: a generalized decline in kids’ health.”

The study was published July 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among the key findings:

• Obesity rates among 2- to 19-year-olds rose from 17% in 2007-2008 to about 21% in 2021-2023.

• In 2023, kids were 15% to 20% more likely than in 2011 to have a chronic health condition, such as anxiety, depression or sleep apnea.

• Annual prevalence rates for 97 chronic conditions recorded by doctors reached 46% in 2023, up from 40% in 2011.

• Kids reported more trouble sleeping, more activity limitations, more feelings of loneliness and more signs of depression.

• More girls entered puberty early.

The study also compared American children with those in other high-income countries.

From 2007 to 2022, children in the U.S. were 1.8 times more likely to die than kids in other wealthy countries, AP reported. 

Babies in the U.S. were more likely to be born too early and to die suddenly without warning. Older kids in the U.S. were more likely to die from firearms and car crashes than their peers abroad.

“Kids are the canaries in the coal mine,” Forrest told AP. “When kids’ health changes, it’s because they’re at increased vulnerability, and it reflects what’s happening in society at large.”

Dr. Frederick Rivara, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and UW Medicine, co-wrote an editorial that accompanied the findings.

“The health of kids in America is not as good as it should be, not as good as the other countries, and the current policies of this administration are definitely going to make it worse,” he said.

The editorial also noted that while the government’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative calls attention to kids’ health, other moves —  including cuts in maternal health programs and fueling vaccine hesitancy — may make things worse.

Forrest agreed that focusing only on risk factors like processed food doesn't go far enough.

“We have to step back and take some lessons from the ecological sustainability community and say: Let’s look at the ecosystem that kids are growing up in," he said. "And let’s start on a kind of neighborhood-by-neighborhood, city-by-city basis, examining it.”

Dr. James Perrin, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics who was not involved in the study, said the findings have some limitations and may not be applicable to the entire U.S. population.

“The basic finding is true,” he said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on childhood obesity.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, July 7, 2025