Alaska Progress Report

Alaska lags the nation in declining teen birth rates

Teen birth rates declined nationwide 17 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to data reported by Kaiser. Alaska ranked 36th with a decline of 14 percent, not quite as steep as the national decline but still respectable. All states and the District of Columbia experienced declines, led by Arizona (-27 percent) and with West Virginia bringing up the bottom at -4 percent.

Medicaid in Alaska

The Kaiser Family Foundation has an excellent overview of the Medicaid program in the states available. Medicaid is a large and often the fastest-growing component of state budgets, but it is also a source of revenue.

Medicaid funds are allocated based on average personal income in states. Alaska is a top-ten state for per-capita personal income, $45,665 in 2011 versus a national average of $41,560. This means we are one of the 14 states that get the minimum match of 50 percent, which is still 1 for 1.

Alaskans are eligible for Medicaid programs, including Denali KidCare, depending on what percent of the Federal Poverty Level or FPL they earn. This is relatively strict: Alaska is one of only four states setting eligibility at less than 200 percent of FPL.

Alaska ranks 32nd on child well-being

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book is hot off the wire and Alaska is ranked 32nd overall. As usual, we stake out many extremes in the rankings:

• Low-birthweight babies, 2008. At 6.0 percent Alaska has the lowest rate in the nation, well below the national rate of 8.2 percent.
• Infant mortality, 2007. At 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, Alaska is ranked 19th, just under the national average of 6.8.
• Child death rate, 2007. At 31 deaths per 100,000 children ages 1 to14, Alaska ranked 49th, way above the national average of 19.
• Teen death rate, 2007. At 100 deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15 to 19, Alaska ranked 50th, well above the national rate of 62.
• Teen birth rate, 2008. At 47 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19, Alaska ranked 34th, significantly above the national rate of 41.
• Percent of teens not in school and not high school graduates, ages 16 to 19. At a rate of 5 percent Alaska ranked 9th, less than the national rate of 6 percent.
• Percent of teens not attending school and not working, ages 16 to 19. At a rate of 12 percent Alaska ranked 45th, well above the national rate of 9 percent.
• Percent of children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment, 2009. Alaska ranked 47th with a rate of 36 percent, above the national rate of 31 percent.
• Percent of children in poverty, 2009. Alaska ranked 5th with a rate of 13 percent, well under the national rate of 20 percent.
• Percent of children in single-parent families, 2009. Alaska ranked 12th with a rate of 30 percent, just under the national rate of 34 percent.

Because of our urban-rural split, many of these indicators are considerably different in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau compared to Barrow and Bethel, for example. Some of the state data are broken out by region within the state.

Alaska ranks 30th on obesity, 2nd on breastfeeding

You gotta love a report titled, "F as in Fat." Published annually by the Trust for America's Health (burp!) the report ranks states on a number of obesity-related measures:

• 25.9% of Alaskans are obese, and 64.9% are overweight or obese compared to 68% nationwide.
• In Alaska 23.9% of men and 28.1% of women are obese.
• 5.9% of Alaskan adults have diabetes, tied with Colorado for the lowest rate.
• 22.8% of Alaskan adults are physically inactive, rank 33rd.
• 24.3% of Alaskans have hypertension, ranked 48th.

These are mixed numbers to be sure, and they vary considerably by race although the margin of error for the minority samples in Alaska are very high. Policies and programs are looked at as well, and Alaska is generally portrayed in the study as lacking most best-practice efforts to curb obesity and related health problems.

On a very positive note, the report says that although only 13.3% of mothers in America are breastfeeding through six months, in Alaska that rate was 23.7% in 2007, the second highest rate in the nation, just behind Oregon.

Alaska 20th for infant mortality rate in 2007

According to a recent National Vital Statistics Report (v59, n6), Alaska had 73 infant deaths in 2007, the latest year's data. This ranked Alaska as the 20th lowest state with a infant mortality rate of 6.61 deaths per 1,000 live births, versus the national rate of 6.74. This is an improvement from 2006 when we were ranked 28th with a rate of 7.0 versus a national rate of 6.68.

"...more than half (54 percent) of all infant deaths in the US in 2007 occurred to the 2 percent of infants born very preterm (less than 32 weeks of gestation). Still, infant mortality rates for late preterm infants (34-36 weeks of gestation) were 3.6 times, and those for early term (37-38 weeks) infants were 1.5 times those for infants born at 39-41 weeks of gestation, the gestational age with the lowest infant mortality rate. The three leading causes of infant death - Congenital malformations, low birthweight, and SIDS - accounted for 45 percent of all infant deaths. The percentage of infant deaths that were “preterm-related” was 36.0 percent in 2007."

"...Across the U.S. rates are generally higher in the south and Midwest and lower elsewhere. For 2005-2007 infant mortality rates ranged from 10.64 for Mississippi to 4.88 for Washington and 4.89 for Utah. The highest rate noted (12.80) was for the District of Columbia (D.C.); however, the rate for the D.C. is more appropriately compared with rates for other large U.S. cities, because of the high concentrations of high-risk women in these areas."

1,857 Alaskan kids in foster care

The Alaska Office of Children's Services has a new video out promoting foster care. OCS is required to track statistics and posts updates monthly on another page. There are about 1,200 Alaskan kids in foster care in an average month. The May 15 report breaks out a total of 1,857 children in placement by region within the state as of April 1:

• Northern region, 330 children, 18% of total.
• Anchorage region, 626, 34%.
• Southeast, 179, 10%.
• Southcentral, 528, 28%.
• Western, 210, 11%.

An annual report details the substantiated allegations that land kids in foster care. In 2010 there were 2,871 unique victims of at least one substantiated allegation of harm. There were a total of 4,655 substantiated allegations, 75% of which were neglect, 14% mental injury, 8% physical abuse and 3% sexual abuse.

Alaska kids enter foster care at higher rates

According to the Kids Count program, Alaska has been consistently above the national average in the rate of kids age 0-17 entering foster care. In 2009 the national rate dipped from 4 kids per 1,000 to 3, while in Alaska the rate stayed steady at 5 kids per 1,000.

Alaska is ranked 35th by this rate. Virginia has the lowest rate at 1, and Wyoming the highest at 9. Alaska's foster care population is heavily skewed Alaska Native. In 2008 there were 2,116 children in foster care, of which 61% were Alaska Native or American Indian. The percentage of children in Alaska who are Alaska Native is 25%.

Alaskan women earn 76.5 percent of what men earn

From the National Partnership for Women and Families, using their Alaska Fact Sheet: "In Alaska, on average, a woman working full time is paid $39,017 per year, while a man working full time is paid $51,019 per year. This creates a wage gap of $12,002 between full-time working men and women in the state." That means women in Alaska earned 76.5% of what men earn, on average, in 2009. That's roughly the same as the national rate.

The fact sheet also notes: "The women of Alaska are increasingly responsible for the economic security of their families and cannot afford to face discrimination and lower wages.

• Nearly 64 percent of working mothers in Alaska bring in more than a quarter of their families’ income, and 27,017 households in Alaska are headed by women.
• Nearly 22 percent of women-headed households in Alaska live below the poverty level. Eliminating the wage gap would provide critical income to 5,916 families living in poverty."

A related report from the feds, Women in America 2011: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, presents some good news to go along with the bad, perhaps most importany that nationally, younger women are more likely than younger men to have a college degree.

Data on Alaska kids mixed

The newest Kids Count Alaska data book is available. From the cover letter: "The results continue to be mixed. Alaska remains among the best in the nation in its low percentage of low birthweight babies, and our rates of crime committed by teenagers keep declining. Yet, we still have much room for improvement in other areas.

"Alaska's teens are at much greater risk of committing suicide, especially in the Northern and Southwest regions; the number of homeless children in Alaska schools is on the rise; and Alaska's youth continue to drop out of school at higher numbers than their national counterparts."

The national Kids Count site has all the data you can digest for Alaska and the rest of the states. You can even make your own maps and charts and download widgets to display data on your web site or blog.

Alaska has second lowest rates of c-sections, low birthweight

OK, inquiring minds want to know: what are the gory details on Alaska's birth rates? You asked, we report (2009 data from the CDC, all rates - we think, they don't actually say - per 1,000 women age 15 to 44):

• Births to mothers under age 20: Alaska 9.8, US 10.0, Alaska ranked 24th.
• Births to unmarried mothers: Alaska 38, US 41, Alaska ranked 32nd.
• Births by cesarian delivery: Alaska 23.8, US 32.9, Alaska ranked 49th.
• Preterm births: Alaska 11.0, US 12.2, Alaska ranked 37th.
• Low birthweight births: Alaska 5.9, US 8.2, Alaska ranked 49th.

That's good news on two fronts: Alaska has the second-lowest rate of c-section births (23.8) after Utah (22.9), and the second-lowest rate of low-birthweight births (5.9) after South Dakota (5.8).