This measure of general health for children comes from the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). The NSCH is conducted annually and includes a Utah subsample which is weighted to Utah's child population (0 to 17 years). Contacted households are screened for children and within eligible households one child is randomly selected to be the focus of a proxy interview with responses provided by a parent or guardian.

This measure comes from the survey question: "In general, how would you describe this child's health? Excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor." Data reported for this indicator includes children whose parent or guardian responded the child is in excellent, very good, or good health.

95% confidence intervals are available for individual levels of the variable, but not for combined levels. Since this represents estimates with combined levels, 95% CI are not reported.

Data is available for 2016-2019, 2021, and 2022. Data was not available at the state level for 2020.

The target value is the national percent of children whose parent or guardian responded that the child is in excellent, very good, or good health. Utah is routinely above the national value, so if we begin trending closer to the national target it is a signal that we need to evaluate current programs and look more closely at the data to see if there is a particular group or groups driving the downward trend. 

Source: https://www.childhealthdata.org/browse/survey

A healthy childhood increases the likelihood that children will also have good health as adults. Healthy childhood relies on a safe and clean physical environment, a nurturing home environment, adequate nutrition and physical activity, community, and adequate healthcare (among other important factors). And while children in Utah overwhelmingly have good to excellent health, there are inequities in access to many of the factors that are important for a healthy childhood. For this reason it is important to continue tracking the health of our children, including identifying the characteristics of children who face challenges, and develop proactive solutions to make sure every child in Utah enjoys equal opportunities for a healthy life.