State drops in child well-being

The bad news for Alabama regarding overall child well-being is that the state has dropped from 43rd to 48th in the national ranking.

The good news, however, is that the Shoals and nearby counties fared better than most parts of the state in several areas, including births to unmarried teens and the juvenile violent crime arrest rate.

The information is included in the 2007 Alabama Kids Count Data Book released last week.

The 15th annual data book uses 19 measures to profile child well-being in each of the state's 67 counties. The report deals with the health, safety, education and economic security of Alabama children.

According to the report, which measures data between 2000 and December 2005, Alabama showed improvement in nine of the 19 indicators, remained stable in nine and grew worse in one. The most improved categories include infant mortality rate, births to unmarried teens, first-grade retention rate, high school dropout rate, child death rate and preventable teen death rate.

The measure that deteriorated is low weight births in Alabama, which mirrors the national trend.

Babies are categorized low birth weight if they were born at less than 5.5 pounds.

The state average rate for low birth weights in 2005 was 10.7 percent. In Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale and Lawrence counties, the lowest rate of low birth weight was in Franklin County at 8.1 percent. Lawrence and Lauderdale were slightly above the average at 11.0 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. Colbert was at 10.2 percent.

"We've made the biggest impact statewide with WIC (Women, Infant and Children's Nutritional Supplement program)," said Dr. Karen Landers, Area 1 District health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health.

"The program has a strong educational component whereby we make women aware of risk factors such as alcohol and drug use during pregnancy and smoking. We do a great deal of education on smoking cessation, one of the greatest risk factors for low birth weight in babies. Obviously, by the state continuing to have higher rates of these incidences, we still have challenges to face."

Colbert is the only county that showed an increase from 2000 in women receiving first trimester prenatal care. The county went from 69.3 percent in 2000 to 84.3 percent in 2005.

Franklin and Lauderdale counties dropped by 10 percent in that category while Lawrence County dropped 3 percent.

As for the population living below poverty level, Lawrence County represented the only drop, falling 2 percent since 2000.

Median income also took a negative turn during the five-year period for area counties. Lauderdale County had the greatest decrease, by a margin of nearly $4,000.

Officials with the Alabama State Data Center at the University of Alabama said the data regarding household income isn't necessarily indicative of what families are earning.

"Most of the children are living in families, that is, two-income households," said center manager Annette Jones Waters. "Economic conditions could play a part, of course, but median family income is generally higher than household because a household can mean anything from college roommates to a single parent. The bottom line is the average number of people in a household is declining."

Don Bogie, Auburn University-Montgomery sociology professor, said the comprehensive data reported in the Kids Count book should be carefully scrutinized.

"Investigate the reasons behind the problem areas and then develop a plan of action," Bogie said.

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or lisa.singleton-rickman@timesdaily.com