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Report: More N.C. Children Have Health Care Coverage

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RALEIGH, N.C. — It was mixed news from a report on children in North Carolina.

The

2005 North Carolina Child Health Report Card

, released Monday by the

North Carolina Institute of Medicine

and the

North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute

, said the number of uninsured children in North Carolina had dropped and the state's immunization rates for 2-year-olds were among the best in the country. But the report, which compared data from 1999 and 2004, also found that more children were overweight and more children died because of abuse.

Figures showed a 48 percent increase in the number of child deaths caused by abuse. There were 31 such deaths in 2004, compared to 21 in 1999. The number of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect fell from more than 32,000 in the 1998-1999 fiscal year to better than 27,000 in the 2003-2004 fiscal year.

The report also showed the number of overweight children increased in all age categories. It said 27 percent of children aged 12 to 18 were overweight, compared to 22.5 percent in 1999.

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