THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995            TAG: 9512060013
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

U.S. SOCIAL HEALTH STILL LOSING GROUND

A statistical portrait of the social health of the 100 most populous U.S. cities indicates that the 25 largest are faring better in the endless battle against societal ills than smaller cities and the nation overall. No one knows why the big cities are doing better, comparatively. But it could be because they have suffered longer and more acutely and have been forced to develop responses to the problems.

For example, violent crime - high on most Americans' worry list - is increasing more rapidly nationwide than in the 25 largest cities. From 1980 to 1990, violent crime increased nationally by 46 percent; the rise in the 25 largest cities was 36.4 percent. In smaller Richmond, the murder rate soared by 114.2 percent while rising 11.8 percent in the nation and 19 percent in New York.

AIDS and infant-mortality rates were higher in smaller cities than in larger ones. That AIDS cases increased 135 percent in the 25 largest cities from 1990 to 1993 is alarming. But the national increase in AIDS during the same period was 141 percent, which is even more so.

These and other findings from its study were disclosed this week by the National Public Health and Hospital Institute, a nonprofit public-health research organization. Financed in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the institute collected data from the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Hospital Association. The study measured the challenges facing metropolitan public hospitals.

Among the challenges is the resurgence of tuberculosis, which for decades had been in decline. The 25 largest cities are coping with the disease better than the nation. From 1990 to 1993, while tuberculosis rates in the largest cities fell 38 percent, they increased 32 percent nationally.

Poverty and social ills are ever linked. From 1980 to 1990, the number of American children living in poverty grew by 12 percent; in the 25 largest cities, by 9.4 percent. That's bad news, however you view it. The most dispiriting news is that the nation's social health continues to deteriorate with no cures in sight. by CNB