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Introduction to the volume on articles from the national survey of children's health.

Article Excerpt
AT THE BEGINNING of the 21st century, researchers, policymakers and advocates had surprisingly few sources of analytic data concerning key issues in the healthy development and well-being of children and their families in the United States. Moreover, there was often no information about the health of children in individual states beyond the perinatal period. The Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which is charged with promoting and improving the health of the nation's mothers and children, implemented a set of new data initiatives to address those gaps. In 2001, the MCHB, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), conducted the National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs, a random-digit-dial survey of almost 40 000 children considered to have special needs. The survey was designed to provide both national- and state-level estimates for this population. (1)

From January 2003 through July 2004, the MCHB conducted the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). The NSCH was created to serve a number of purposes. Its primary purpose was to provide estimates at the both the national- and state-level for a variety of physical, emotional, and behavioral child health indicators. These data were designed to help guide policymakers, advocates, and researchers on child health. Another purpose was to provide baseline estimates for a number of federal and state programs, such as the Title V maternal and child health performance measures, Healthy People 2010, and each state's 5-year Title V needs assessment.

The NSCH was conducted through random-digit dialing. Interviews were conducted in either English or Spanish; 5.9% of interviews were conducted in Spanish. To increase efficiency and lower costs, the NSCH shared the sampling frame of the National Immunization Survey. All interviews used computer-assisted telephone interviewing. The survey was conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Households were screened to identify the presence of children under 18 years old....