Health Highlights: July 28, 2009
July 29 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Recession Will Affect Kids' Well-Being: Report
There were modest improvements in the well-being of American children during the good economic times earlier this decade, but things will get worse in the current recession, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The Kids Count evaluation of 10 key indicators in federal government statistics, released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found slight improvements in six areas since 2000, including infant death rates, the Washington Post reported. Teen pregnancies are lower than they were in 2000 but are on the rise again in all but nine states and the District of Columbia.
However, even before the official start of the recession in December 2007, more children were living in poverty, in homes with single parents, or with parents who were unemployed, said the report.
Since the most recent data are from 2007, the report doesn't include the effects of recession-related job losses.
"Our take-away is that even going into the recession, the economic outlook for a lot of families was dire," Laura Beavers, the national Kids Count coordinator, told the Post. "There was a flattening of the median income, and the poverty level was creeping up year after year."
The Kids Count report has been issued annually for 20 years.
-----
Texting Greatly Increases Crash Risk
Texting while driving increased truckers' risk of collision 23-fold, according to new U.S. research.
The analysis of images recorded by video cameras in the cabs of more than 100 long-haul truckers over 18 months also revealed that in the moments before a crash or near-crash, drivers spent about five seconds looking at their texting devices, the New York Times reported. At highway speeds, a vehicle travels more than the length of a football field in five seconds.
Related Stories
ABC News Live