A Survey of Health Status and Needs of Urban Mothers and Children

Abstract

FEW persons would question that the large cities of our country and their inhabitants are in serious trouble. Riots occur intermittently, housing is substandard, and the environment, because of pollution, is frequently unhealthy. Public schools with large classes and insufficient individualized personal instruction are giving students substandard educations. Crime, juvenile delinquency, and drug abuse are increasing and health and hospital inpatient and outpatient services are often inadequate. Recreation services are relatively few (1). Concurrent with the aforementioned difficulties, there has been a considerable movement to the cities from rural areas of low-income people and families. This movement has placed an enormous burden on the cities' civic services, including health services, hospitals, and social agencies, because these people have great need for services but little or no ability to support them. Middle-class families who do support these services, however, have left the central cities for the suburbs. Many practicing physicians have also left, and although the needs of the inhabitants of our large cities have increased, they have fewer direct resources to meet them. Direct tax sources are increasingly inadequate to meet the cost of city health services, and a rise in unemployment has added a further strain to the economic and social structure. Inflation has decreased the purchasing power of the health dollar as it has that of other dollars. We felt it timely to survey the status and needs of mothers and children in large cities. Also, the survey would provide an opportunity to determine their health status and needs during a time of economic stress and changing concepts of the delivery of health services.