A new study shows the general health status of Mississippi children did not meet a national benchmark.

Over half of Mississippi’s children age 17 or younger live in poor or near-poor households, 31 percent live in middle income and 15 percent live in higher income households. About one-third live in households where no one has an education beyond high school.

The study, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows that in infant mortality Mississippi ranks 45 nationally and in children’s general health, Mississippi ranks 45.

The study also shows children in poor families are 3.5 times as likely to be in what the study calls “less than optimal health” as those in higher income families.

On the Net:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study, http://www.commissionhealth.org