The Trump administration reimagines public health through its Make America Healthy Again movement.

A new study paints a stark picture of the challenges facing this nation's kids.

American children's health has significantly worsened across several key indicators since 2007,

according to a recent study published in JAMA.

I recently spoke to Dr. Christopher Forrest,

a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the study's lead authors.

Dr. Forrest, thank you so much for joining us. I want to read some top line numbers from your study.

A child was 15 to 20 percent likely to develop a chronic condition in 2023.

Then in 2011, obesity rates rose from 17 to 20 percent among children between 2007 and

2023.

And rates of depression, anxiety, sleep, apnea, and autism have all increased.

What is the significance of children's health deteriorating

across these metrics and more of them?

Our study actually evaluated 170 different health statistics, death rates, rates of disease,

distress, and the significance is that across all of those indicators, there's been a decline in children's health over the last two decades.

That speaks to a generalized decline in the developmental ecosystem where kids are being raised, where they grow, and where they live.

What do we know about why this is happening?

So that is the big question, and it's a complex answer. There is no single

factor that's causing this generalized deterioration. People like to point out that the food

environment is not healthy or the kids are spending more time on social media, but that's just

the proximate set of causes. There are also

environmental causes that are important. What's happening to families? Families are experiencing a lot

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