title: Lead poisoning in Minnesota Medicaid children.
abstract: This article presents data on blood-lead testing in Minnesota children from 1999 through 2003. The number of Minnesota children younger than 6 years of age who were tested for blood lead increased from approximately 38,000 in 1999 to 61,000 in 2003. The rate of blood-lead testing in 9- to 30-month-old children enrolled in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare, the state's Medicaid programs for children, increased from 17% to 29% between 1999 and 2003. The rate of elevated blood-lead levels (10 microg/dL or greater) in all tested children declined from 6% in 1999 to 2.7% in 2003. However, the rate of elevated blood-lead levels in children enrolled in the 2 public programs in 2003 (3.4%) was 2-fold higher than that in children who were not on Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare (1.5%). The percentage of all children with elevated blood-lead levels who were retested within 3 months increased from 39% in 1999 to 50% in 2003.
authors.affiliation: Minnesota Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, Minnesota Department of Health, USA.
authors.forename: Erik W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Zabel
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castellano
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D007855:Lead Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008910:Minnesota; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D007854:Lead