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Pediatricians Urged To Screen For Poverty At Child Check-Ups [NPR.org]

 

Pediatricians are being urged to screen for poverty during office visits. To better understand what this means in practice, NPR's Kelly McEvers talks to Dr. Barbara Ricks.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Here is a grim fact. One in 5 children in the United States today lives below the federal poverty line. The influential American Academy of Pediatrics has found, not so surprisingly, that children living in poverty are more susceptible to a whole range of illnesses - obesity, diabetes, asthma, toxic stress. Babies who are born into poverty have a higher chance of dying during infancy. So the Academy is issuing new guidance to pediatricians, asking them to screen for poverty at checkups. And to better understand how this works, we've called Dr. Barbara Ricks. She's a pediatrician in Greenville, Miss. Dr. Ricks, welcome to the show.

BARBARA RICKS: Hello.

MCEVERS: Tell us about the community that you serve. How prevalent is poverty in your area?

RICKS: Sure. Poverty is quite rampant here. Probably 45 percent of our residents are in the poverty level, and that includes our children. It's something in my practice I see every day either directly or indirectly.



[For more of this interview go to http://www.npr.org/2016/03/10/...y-at-child-check-ups]

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