by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published a study comparing “mental and physical health outcomes of children placed in foster care to outcomes of children not placed in foster care.”

The study claims to be the first of its kind looking specifically at these health outcomes.

Similar to other past studies looking at outcomes comparing foster children to those not placed in foster care, the results of this new study were predictable:

We find that children in foster care are in poor mental and physical health relative to children in the general population, children across specific family types, and children in economically disadvantaged families… Children in foster care are a vulnerable population in poor health, partially as a result of their early life circumstances.

The study reached three…