Children's HealthWatch - Overview

The Children's HealthWatch Program is a unique research and advocacy collaboration of pediatric specialists from five medical institutions in Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. The goals of Children's HealthWatch are to provide direct interventions for children at-risk for growth and nutrition problems and to research, educate, and inform policymakers regarding public programs that impact children's health and empower families through special outreach programs.

Program Description

Representing an ethnically and geographically diverse sample, the five Children's HealthWatch sites have collected anthropometric, food security, demographic, and state and federal program participation data on children who utilize their medical centers' Emergency Departments and Acute Care Clinics since 1998.

Children's HealthWatch is examining the impact of social safety net policies on the health, development, and well-being of young children through timely and simultaneous multi-site monitoring. It is our hope that the information collected by Children's HealthWatch will help policy-makers make informed decisions about social safety net policies that affect low-income children.