From 1992 through 2001, Russia lost more than 7 million people as a result of natural population loss or, with the positive migration balance taken into account, 4.7 million. These statistics show that the size of Russia's population is diminishing steadily. This article reports the findings of a study examining the factors that account for the…

Researchers in many fields agree. The physical, social, and economic health and well-being of adults and society as a whole are strongly influenced by the early experiences of children, when the foundation for effective cognitive and social skills and abilities are developed. Children who have developmental delays or disabilities require and often…

This report describes the health status of children and adults in developed and developing countries. Worldwide, life expectancy at birth rose from 47 to 67 years between the 1950s and late 1980s. However, more than 300 million people live in countries where life expectancy is below 50 years of age and 1 of every 10 newborns dies before age 1. In…

In the early 1980s, the Ford Foundation launched a grants program called Child Survival/A Fair Start for Children (CS/FS) that addressed issues related to birth and infant health and development among families that were poor and underserved by traditional human services. This book reports on each of seven CS/FS projects, describing the concerns…

The World Summit for children was held at the United Nations, New York, on September 30, 1990. The summit set child health goals to be achieved by the year 2000, and offered strategies and guiding principles for achieving the goals. The summit proposed a new ethic for children which called for children's needs to be given high priority in the…

This report maintains that it is just as unacceptable to allow millions of children to die each year from needless infection and malnutrition as it is to let them die in sudden emergencies of drought and famine. The world now has the means to attack childhood malnutrition and disease on a massive scale and at an affordable cost. Four million…

Testimony concerned: (1) problems a high-risk, low-income mother had in receiving prenatal care; (2) dimensions of the infant mortality problem in Chicago, Illinois; (3) programs of the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) that address the problem; (3) the need for the IDPA to design a plan to implement SOBRA (the 1986 Sixth Omnibus Budget…

This document records hearings before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and its sub-committee on Nutrition. The hearings, dated March 15 and April 9, 1984, were conducted in order to evaluate and reauthorize the special supplemental food program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), due to expire in 1984. Testimony…

The infant mortality rate in the District of Columbia is higher than that for any other state. This high rate stems from the great number of infants born seriously underweight and reflects the area's high percentage of births to impoverished black women. Efforts to reduce the mortality rate have centered around the medical treatment approach,…

This monograph focuses attention on economic considerations related to infant feeding practices in developing countries. By enlarging on previous methodologies, this paper proposes to improve the accuracy of past estimates of the economic value of human milk, or more specifically, the practice of breastfeeding. The theoretical model employed…

The decade of the 70's has seen significant improvements in child health and dramatic insights into the biological, psychological, and social factors influencing children's growth and development. Four of the six major gains in health status listed in the Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention relate to improvements in…

The purpose of this report is to enhance both individual and national perspectives on prevention of ill health and premature death through identification of priorities and specification of measureable goals. Health problems for every age group from infancy through old age are discussed with suggestions for prevention and improvement of…

This Kids Count issue brief details the strides made in Rhode Island over the last 10 years to improve maternal and child health, focusing on efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. The brief notes that Rhode Island has made significant progress in several areas of maternal and infant care, most notably in access to insurance and early…

Discusses symposium papers focused on the socioeconomic determinants of infant mortality, the relationship between fertility and child development, the effects of maternal employment on child welfare, the consequences of urban migration for children, and indigenous education in the developing world.(Author/RH)

Presents data on the problems of poor children and youth. Describes the efforts of the Children's Defense Fund to make preventive investment in children and families the cornerstone of domestic policy, and to make decent, affordable child care services available nationwide. (MW)