The 2008 NORTH CAROLINA CHILD HEALTH REPORT CARD, issued by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and Action for Children North Carolina, indicates that while North Carolina's efforts to ensure positive health outcomes for children and youth have shown improvement in many areas, there is still cause for concern.

Data from the Report Card highlight the following:

* Approximately 20 percent of North Carolina's 2.2 million children (age 0-17) continue to live in poverty and 13.1 percent remain uninsured. Poverty and lack of insurance provide a serious challenge to the health of youth across the state.

* Access to dental care continues to be a major problem with 1-in-5 kindergartners suffering from untreated tooth decay.

* The percentage of children who are overweight continues to worsen at an alarming pace despite recent efforts to combat this problem. Today, almost 1-in-4 children (age 2-18) in North Carolina are overweight compared to 1-in-5 in 2002.

* While the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit substances has decreased among high school students, the use of these substances remains alarmingly high. For example, 19 percent of high school students reported using marijuana and 38 percent reported using alcohol in the past month.

* Though infant and child death rates remain close to historic lows, they are showing signs of increasing and warrant careful attention. Child abuse homicide remains a particularly tragic indicator of the need to provide more support for families. In 2007, there were 25 child abuse homicide deaths.

* Racial disparities remain disturbingly wide across several indicators. For example, infant mortality and low birthweight continue to disproportionately impact communities of color. Narrowing these gaps deserves special attention.

This is the 14th annual Child Health Report Card.