Over the last few decades, there has been a significant growth in the measurement and reporting of health care quality outcomes. As health care evolves, it is important to continue to monitor and report on the quality of care delivered to patients in California and across the US. This is part of a series of measures CHCF is publishing on the quality of care in our state. Topics range from maternal to end-of-life care, and include measures on behavioral health, chronic conditions, and patient safety.

This set of quality measures focuses on children’s health and reports the most recently available data, including rates of vaccinations, being overweight, and potentially preventable hospital admissions. The charts below provide a look at these data.

A higher percentage of 0- to 11-year-old children with Medi-Cal were overweight compared to children of the same ages with employment-based coverage. Similarly, adolescents age 12–17 with Medi-Cal coverage were more likely to be overweight or obese than adolescents with employment-based coverage. Being overweight or obese¹ increases the risk of various health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.

Less than 70% of California children age 19 to 35 months had received recommended routine vaccinations to protect against 14 potentially serious illnesses in 2017.

In 2017, 28% of African American children had been told by a doctor that they had asthma, compared to 14% of Latino children, and 11% of white children. Asthma can have many negative impacts on a child’s health and well-being, including making it difficult to exercise, play, and attend school.

The companion Excel data file, which provides these data and more, as well as link to each data source, is available for download below. These materials are part of CHCF’s California Health Care Almanac, an online clearinghouse for key data and analyses describing the state’s health care landscape. See our entire collection of current and past editions of Quality of Care.

1. Overweight for children is based on a child’s weight considering sex, age (in months), and height; for adolescents, overweight or obese is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) above the 85th percentile, based on age- and gender-specific BMI percentiles.