How Well Off Are McHenry County's Moms And Children?

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — A new report shows McHenry County has a high concentration of disadvantaged families when compared with other U.S. counties.

The 2023 Health of Women and Children Report released earlier this month by United Health Care Foundation, the insurer’s nonprofit foundation, found that overall, maternal deaths, drug deaths among women and child injury deaths all trended upward. Teen births and vaping among high school students appear to be going down.

Overall, Illinois ranked 15 in the snapshot of health and well-being of women and children, based on an analysis of data from 34 distinct sources across 122 measures.

According to the data, the following are among the strengths for women and children in Illinois:

• High enrollment in early childhood education
• Low percentage of uninsured children
• Low prevalence of frequent mental distress among women

According to the data, the following are among the challenges for women and children in Illinois:

• High prevalence of unemployment among women
• Low WIC coverage among eligible children ages 0-4
• Low prevalence of fruit and vegetable consumption among women

Some parts of Illinois are doing worse than others when compared to other U.S. counties, which have a higher percentage of neighborhoods with various problems, ranging from families who don’t have enough money, who are getting government help, and have high unemployment rates among people 16 or older. These neighborhoods also have a lot of kids.

Meanwhile, McHenry County overall scores better with between 5 percent and 21.8 percent of households (with children) that are located in census tracts for which the averaged z-score of the following factors is below the 75th percentile: family households below the poverty line, individuals receiving public assistance, female-headed households, unemployment ages 16 and older and population younger than 18. Counties in higher quintiles have greater disadvantage relative to all U.S. counties

Overall, the analysis showed Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Hawaii, respectively, are the healthiest states for children and women of childbearing age. Mississippi had the greatest opportunity to improve, followed by Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

The researchers noted several trends nationwide that they found troubling:

• Maternal mortality, especially among racial and ethnic groups, increased 29 percent from 2014-2018 to 2017-2021.
• The rate of drug deaths among women continued to climb, up 27 percent in 2019-2021 from 2016-2008.
• The number of injury deaths among children 11 percent — an increase of roughly 3,800 deaths — between 2016-2018.
• Despite a 10 percent increase in high health status among women — the percentage of women who reported that their health was very good or excellent — several mental and preventive health measures worsened. Frequent mental distress increased, and the number of women’s health providers decreased.
• While there were some positive trends like declining teen births and reduced vaping among high schoolers, the overall landscape of youth health showed setbacks in early childhood education and broad disparities.