Summary health statistics for U.S. children: National Health Interview Survey, 2008

This report presents both age-adjusted and unadjusted statistics from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) on selected health measures for children under 18 years of age, classified by sex, age, race, Hispanic origin, family structure, parent education, family income, poverty status, health insurance coverage, place of residence, region, and current health status. The topics covered are asthma, allergies, learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), prescription medication use, respondent-assessed health status, school-loss days, usual place of health care, time since last contact with a health care professional, selected measures of health care access and utilization, and dental care.

NHIS is a multistage probability sample survey conducted annually by interviewers of the U.S. Census Bureau for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and is representative of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States. Data are collected for all family members during face-to-face interviews with adults present at the time of interview. Additional information about children is collected for one randomly selected child per family in face-to-face interviews with an adult proxy respondent familiar with the child's health.

In 2008, most U.S. children under 18 years of age had excellent or very good health (83%). However, 9% of children had no health insurance coverage, and 5% of children had no usual place of health care. Thirteen percent of children had ever been diagnosed with asthma. An estimated 8% of children 3-17 years of age had a learning disability, and an estimated 8% of children had ADHD.