Published online October 1, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 122 No. 4 October 2008, pp. 843-849 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2143)

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SPECIAL ARTICLE

A National Agenda for America's Children and Adolescents in 2008: Recommendations From the 15th Annual Public Policy Plenary Symposium, Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, May 3, 2008

Myron Genel, MD^a, Mary Anne McCaffree, MD^b, Karen Hendricks, JD^c, Phyllis A. Dennery, MD^d, William W. Hay, Jr, MD^e, Bonita Stanton, MD^f, Peter G. Szilagyi, MD, MPH^g and Renée R. Jenkins, MD^h

^a Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
^b Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
^c Department of Federal Affairs, American Academy of Pediatrics, Washington, DC
^d Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
^e Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado
^f Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan
^g Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York
^h Department of Pediatrics, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC

Key Words: AAP—American Academy of Pediatrics • NIH—National Institutes of Health • CHGME—Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education • SCHIP—State Children's Health Insurance Program

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Politicians savor "photo ops" with children—the younger the better—yet rhetoric notwithstanding, children's issues rarely rise to the top the nation's priority list. With pressing national issues, both domestic and foreign, the 2008 elections will likely continue in this pattern. A recent study from the Urban Institute estimated that children's share of domestic federal spending declined from 20.2% in 1960 to 16.2% in 2007, with another decrease projected to 13.8% in 2018 if current spending and revenue policies are continued.¹

It is clear that strong and articulate advocacy is needed to reverse these trends. To this end, leaders of 5 major pediatric organizations have joined to develop a set of proposals to guide advocacy on behalf of children and adolescents in the 2008 elections. The setting was the 15th Annual Public Policy Plenary Symposium held at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 3, 2008. Presidents of the 4 sponsoring societies (American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research, Academic Pediatric Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP]) participated together with the president-elect of the Association of American Pediatric Department Chairs. Each took responsibility for addressing a specific area of interest that was refined over the preceding several months with 2 conference calls and electronic communications. Summaries and recommendations follow.

	UNDERSTANDING THE CONSEQUENCES OF POVERTY ON CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH

 
Phyllis A. Dennery, MD, President, 2007–2008 Society for Pediatric Research
In the coming years, a larger portion of the US workforce will have been raised in poverty than ever before. This bodes poorly for the productivity and future success of our nation. Because of the demand for highly skilled workers to develop and manage new technologies and the relative functional illiteracy and innumeracy of a large proportion of US workers, our labor force is weakened compared with other nations.

Citizens who have grown up in poverty have diminished cognitive and social skills as well as suboptimal . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Address correspondence to Myron Genel, MD, Public Policy Council, Yale Child Health Research Center, PO Box 208081, New Haven, CT 06520-8081. E-mail: myron.genel@yale.edu

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