Socioeconomic Status Separates City's Youngest on Health Care

New York City's youngest children have vastly different access to health care, good nutrition, and child care based on their socioeconomic status, a new report has found.

The study of children under age 3 to be published today by a children's advocacy group, the New York Zero-to-Three Network, shows that more than half — 54% — come from low-income families or families living in poverty. There are about 300,000 children younger than 3 in New York City.

In a comparison of neighborhoods, the report documented health discrepancies, including the infant mortality rate, which were attributed to economic factors. The infant mortality rate in 2006 was highest in southeast Queens, 9.9%; the citywide rate was 5.6%, and nationwide the infant mortality rate for that year was 6.9%. "For New York City infants, toddlers, and babies, we need to be doing better. There are discrepancies," a co-president of the group, Evelyn Blanck, said. "We know these are the critical years."

According to the report's authors, the study is the first to examine the first three years of a child's life. Other research typically looks at the first five years of a child's life.

"There's a huge amount of research in the last several years that points to the first three years of life as an important starting point for subsequent development," the director of the Early Childhood Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Susan Chinitz, a former co-president of the advocacy group, said. She said infants are probably more affected by their environment and experiences than children in other age categories.

Overall, researchers said there should be more data on the youngest age bracket.

In an examination of children enrolled in the federal nutrition program, Women, Infants, and Children, the report analyzed the health of children younger than 5. In a comparison by borough, it found that 13.6% of Bronx children in WIC were anemic, compared with 8.7% of children in Staten Island. In another measure, researchers found that 13.5% of Bronx children in WIC were overweight or obese, compared to 11.4% of Brooklyn children.

The report also highlighted a lack of affordable child care. Nearly 7% of children were enrolled in regulated child care, leaving the vast majority in informal child care settings.