How Can the Pediatric Community Enhance Funding for Child Health Research?

Children (younger than 18 years) in the US represent 22% of the total population. Although this segment of the population is healthier than older populations, the prevalence of children with complex medical conditions is growing rapidly, now constitutes an estimated 3% to 5% of the total childhood population, and represents a growing contribution to the numbers of children hospitalized on a daily basis in the US. In addition, it is increasingly clear that many of the antecedents of adult chronic disease, including mental disorders and obesity and cardiovascular disorders, reside in the first 18 years of life, often before birth, in infancy, and during the preschool years. Approximately 10% of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget ($4 billion) supports research addressing childhood health. We raise 3 important questions: (1) Is this proportion of the NIH funding addressing child health in the best interest of child and life span health for the US population? (2) Is NIH funding of child health distributed where most needed to advantage individual and population health of our youth and life span health? (3) What can pediatric programs do to enhance the numbers and success of investigators in pediatric research?
Source: JAMA Pediatrics - Category: Pediatrics Source Type: research