THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN

Objective. To summarize the concept of child health and the measuremen t of child health status in order to help guide the evaluation of the effectiveness of medical, social, and policy programs. Conclusions. Op portunities for research on children's health status and quality of ca re abound. Comprehensive and functional definitions create problems of measurement, but investigators are making progress in measuring child ren's health status both generically and for specific chronic health c onditions. Recommendations. Measures of child health need to be develo ped, improved, tested, and made user-friendly for clinical and policy research. The relationship between health status and a variety of soci al programs for children and families needs study. The impact of chang es in healthcare organization and financing must be investigated, espe cially for children from vulnerable subgroups. Determining the value a nd effectiveness of preventive services is a pressing issue. It is cru cial to understand better the link among quality of care; other factor s biological, family, and social; and children's health status.