Survey Highlights Health Concerns in the Community

At the Child Health Summit, Cook Children’s Center for Community Health shared key findings on family and children’s health needs in our communities.

The Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) provides valuable insights from parents, caregivers, and community leaders across our eight-county service region: Collin, Denton, Grayson, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant, and Wise Counties.

More than a hundred leaders from North Texas community organizations tuned in on May 6 for the first session of the two-part summit, during which Cook Children’s explained the methodology of the survey and outlined key findings. It is important to share these results because community organizations and leaders can use this data to inform their strategies for continuing to improve children’s health in their communities.

The key focuses of part one were overall health and well-being, asthma, and healthy lifestyles. The full assessment can be found here, and offers more detailed information on each data collection method used. See more tools for result breakdowns at the interactive data dashboard.

Additional findings specific to caregiver support, injury prevention, mental health, and oral health will be shared on June 3.

Main concerns

The assessment included 6,877 parents/caregivers’ responses over the last three years and 239 survey responses from community leaders such as representatives from health departments, nonprofits, schools, and faith-based groups.

The most pressing concerns for many families in our area are related to financial stressors.

As costs have risen over the last few years, 45% of community leaders flagged inflation and poverty as a serious problem in their community.

These struggles directly impact kids’ and families’ physical and mental health. One caregiver said in a survey that they worry about paying for medical visits in addition to other household expenses. Community leaders noted that they help many working families with food, clothes, and other needs.

Housing affordability, food insecurity, and childcare costs are increasing problems for our communities. More than half of community leaders said access to affordable, nutritious food was a serious problem.

Overall health and well-being

Insurance coverage came up repeatedly in interviews with caregivers and parents. While the majority of children (88%) had continuous health insurance in the last year, 5% (about 54,700), had a coverage gap, and 7% (about 81,400) are currently uninsured. Children experiencing homelessness were three times more likely to be uninsured.

Caregivers shared that the lack of coverage was mostly due to affordability, respondents said. Families who did not speak English or Spanish said the language barrier was another obstacle to insurance coverage, and they did not always know how to renew or update their insurance.

Vaccination rates have decreased in our eight-county area – 89% of parents and caregivers reported their child had received all up-to-date vaccines, which is about an 8% decrease since the 2021 CHNA.

Asthma

One in ten children in the service area has asthma, and it is one of the most common health conditions in kids. While asthma is manageable, 19% of those children did not have an asthma action plan. This shows a need for more education, training, and support for caregivers of children with asthma, including daycare providers, schools, and aftercare programs.

Healthy lifestyles

A healthy lifestyle for children includes a healthy weight, physical activity, nutritious food, and adequate sleep. Only 35% of children in our area eat fresh fruits and veggies at the recommended amount, and the majority of children (94%) are spending more than two hours on entertainment screen time every day.

While living a healthy lifestyle benefits overall health, many children and families face obstacles to doing so. Not everyone can access nutritious food in their neighborhood, and 1 in 7 children do not live in an area that has sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, or recreation centers.

In the eight-county service area, approximately 34% of children (about 390,100) live in households that cannot always afford to eat good, nutritious meals and 21% of children (about 236,400) live in a household that reported receiving food stamps or SNAP benefits in the past year.

SNAP gives families financial help to buy nutritious food, but cuts in this program have made it harder for families to get those benefits. The reduction of SNAP emergency allotments also places additional strain on local food banks and community organizations to bridge the gap left by the reduced benefits.

Reduced benefits may lead to increased food insecurity, limiting access to nutritious meals and negatively affecting the health of families and children, ultimately exacerbating social and economic inequalities.

Calls to action

Based on the findings, Cook Children’s Center for Community Health identified

crucial next steps to improving children’s health in our communities. One of those tactics is to foster more partnerships focused on non-medical drivers of health, such as food security, economic stability, and housing.

Cook Children’s also plans to strengthen collaborations to create more community outreach for families, advocate for strategies that benefit our communities, and improve access to community resources for children.

More detailed strategy plans can be found on Cook Children’s community outreach page.

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Survey Highlights Health Concerns in the Community