The health of our children continues to improve--but... (a litany of change--Part III).

The National Center for Health Statistics supplies extensive and detailed survey results that support the general underlying perspective of an improving trend in the health status of children in the United States. Included in the survey were 47,000 households with more than 17,000 children, less than eighteen years of age. Nevertheless, there were several negative trends in children's health and safety in the 1980s. The negative trends included (1) failure to maintain the level of women getting prenatal care set in the 1970s; (2) the infant mortality rate in 1990 of 9.2 per 1000 of live births is higher than that in twenty-three industrialized countries; (3) injuries have emerged as the major cause of childhood mortality, morbidity, and disability; (4) disparities along racial and income-related lines continue at a serious level. The author also discusses the dental needs of children and the use of dental services.