Health Snapshots: Young Children's Health in California

Health Snapshots: Young Children's Health in California has been published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research with support from First 5 California.

This web information resource provides data and information on young children's health (up to age 5).  Topics and information are taken from the California Health Interview Survey.  Some of these topics include: access to medical care, consumption of fast food, consumption of daily servings of fruits and vegetables, frequency of parents reading books to children, attendance of pre-school/nursery school, Head Start, and more.  Data and information are also provided for the state, across all 58 counties as well as regions (Southern California, Central California, Northwest, Northeast, Bay Area, and Greater Sacramento).

Selected Findings:

• Parents in L.A. County reported 72.3% of their children (aged 0-5) in "excellent to very good health"; compared to the county with the highest rate in California (Nevada) at 97% and California as a whole at 74.6%.
• 38.6% of children (ages 4-5) in L.A. County attend a childcare program (such as a nursery school, head start, or preschool) for 10 or more hours a week compared to 37% for the state of California as a whole, and 67% for the county with the highest rate of early childcare attendance (Humboldt).
• 81.9% of children up to age 5 in L.A. County have some form of dental coverage compared to 63% for the county (Monterey) with the lowest rate of dental coverage in California.