Tracking Children’s Health

Categories: Childhood Obesity Prevention,Encourage Research on What Works

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) supports efforts to establish a baseline for and monitor the progress of statewide efforts to reduce childhood obesity.  The state of Illinois requires that data, including height and weight, be recorded by physicians on the Certificate of Child Health Examination Form and submitted to schools before children enter kindergarten and sixth and ninth grades.  The state Legislature has also mandated that these data be reported to the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health.  To facilitate these efforts, BCBSIL provided $38,000 in funding for a summit designed to advance the development of a database into which data from the form can be entered.