Maternal and Child Health Library
This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html.
April 3, 2009
1. Brief Summarizes Social Marketing Strategies to
Promote Adolescents' Health Care Use
2. Fact Sheet Informs Debate on How to Improve the Health
Care System for Mothers and Children
3. Journal Supplement Examines Measures of the Food and
Physical Activity Environments
4. Article Presents Core Competencies to Help Reduce the
Burden of Injury and Violence
5. Study Explores the Impact of Language Differences on
Risk for Developmental Disorder and Elicitation of Parental Concerns
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1. BRIEF SUMMARIZES SOCIAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE
ADOLESCENTS' HEALTH CARE USE
Recommended Adolescent Health Care Utilization: How Social Marketing
Can Help examines the use of commercial marketing strategies to promote
adolescents' use of health care services. The issue brief, produced by
the National Institute for Health Care Management, summarizes the basic
elements or stages of social marketing and discusses the application of
social marketing theory and techniques to health care. Topics include
audience segmentation, messages tailored to individuals, branding and
social modeling, and evidence about the efficacy of social marketing to
change health behaviors. Examples of successful social marketing
campaigns targeted to adolescents, including those that used Web sites,
social networking, and other new media, are provided. Challenges and
opportunities to promote adolescent heath care use are also presented.
The brief is available at http://www.nihcm.org/pdf/NIHCM-SocialMarketing-FINAL.pdf.
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2. FACT SHEET INFORMS DEBATE ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
Making Maternal and Child Health a Priority looks at state policy
choices that promote access to quality health care for mothers and
children. The fact sheet, produced by the National Center for Children
in Poverty, summarizes what the research says about early childhood
health and maternal health. The summary is followed by a discussion of
the current landscape, including the percentage of young children from
families with low incomes who are without health insurance, the number
of states where 80 percent or more of the children enrolled in Medicaid
receive an annual Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment
health screen, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program
income eligibility for children ages 1-5, and Medicaid
income-eligibility levels for working parents. The fact sheet concludes
with information on what states can do to address the barriers children
and parents face in accessing health care. The fact sheet is available
at http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_860.pdf.
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3. JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT EXAMINES MEASURES OF THE FOOD AND PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY ENVIRONMENTS
The supplement to the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine reports on research in food and physical activity
measurement. The papers in the supplement focus on the proceedings of a
workshop held in November 2007 and organized by the National Cancer
Institute and several other partners to review the state of the science
on measures of food and physical environments, synthesize emerging
developments in measuring these environments, define gaps in existing
knowledge, and shape the future research agenda. The papers are
organized into four main sections: the history of measurement of food
and physical activity environments, the state of the science of
measuring these environments, the measurement of food and physical
activity environments of populations at increased risk for obesity and
related health conditions, and summaries of discussions and
recommendations from four workshop breakout groups. The breakout group
topics include instruments, geographic information systems, data
complexity, and future directions. All the papers discuss particular
challenges associated with their topic area and offer recommendations.
The supplement is available at http://www.ajpm-online.net/issues/contents?issue_key=S0749-3797(09)X0003-6.
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4. ARTICLE PRESENTS CORE COMPETENCIES TO HELP REDUCE THE BURDEN OF
INJURY AND VIOLENCE
"We have delineated the array of knowledge and skills that enable or
enhance the ability of public health professionals in injury and
violence prevention to practice successfully," write the authors of an
article published in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of
Public Health. Injury and violence remain significant public health
issues. Current efforts to reduce the burden of injury and violence are
often viewed as inadequate. One factor underlying this observation is
the now well-recognized lack of infrastructure for injury and violence
prevention in public health practice. The State and Territorial Injury
Prevention Directors Association and the Society for Advancement of
Violence and Injury Research have been leading an initiative to address
this shortcoming. The primary objective of this collaboration has been
to identify, develop, and promote a common understanding of the
essential skills and knowledge necessary for individuals to excel as
violence- and injury-prevention professionals in public health. In this
article, the authors report on the competency set identified to meet
this objective.
The National Training Initiative for Injury and Violence Prevention
(NTI) was formed to focus on specific training efforts. The NTI focused
on (1) identifying essential knowledge and skills, (2) drafting
specific competencies and learning objectives, (3) conducting an expert
panel review, and (4) soliciting public comment.
NTI identified nine essential competencies for injury and violence
prevention:
1. Describe and explain injury and violence as a social and health
problem.
2. Access, interpret, use, and present injury and violence data.
3. Design and implement injury- or violence-prevention activities.
4. Evaluate injury- or violence-prevention activities.
5. Build and manage an injury- or violence-prevention program.
6. Disseminate information through diverse communication networks.
7. Stimulate change through policy, enforcement, advocacy, and
education.
8. Maintain and develop competency as a professional.
9. Demonstrate competency in an injury- or violence-prevention topic.
The authors conclude that "the primary purpose of the competencies and
their measurable objectives is to provide the public health
professional with a standard set of skills for practice in injury- or
violence-prevention efforts. The NTI envisions that this competency set
will begin the process of development and implementation of a
systematic training effort in the field and, ultimately, the
enhancement of the infrastructure necessary to practice injury
prevention effectively."
Songer T, Stephens-Stidham S, Peek-Asa C, et al. 2009. Core
competencies for injury and violence prevention. American Journal of
Public Health 99(41):600-606. Abstract available at http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/99/4/600?ck=nck.
Readers: More information is available from the following MCH Library
resource:
- Child Safety and Injury Prevention: Resource Brief at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides/childsafety.html
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5. STUDY EXPLORES THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES ON RISK FOR
DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER AND ELICITATION OF PARENTAL CONCERNS
"We found that pediatric providers ask parents about developmental
concerns at low rates, and that language or ethnic differences may
significantly impact whether providers ask parents about their
concerns," state the authors of an article published in the March-April
2009 issue of Academic Pediatrics. Pediatric health professionals
monitor child development and behavior through developmental and
behavioral (DB) surveillance, which involves observation of a child and
elicitation of concerns from parents and other caregivers. Language
differences may affect whether health professionals ask about parental
concerns and thus whether DB surveillance is performed in the primary
care setting. The article presents findings from a study to assess
whether language differences are associated with variation in (1)
provider elicitation of parent DB concerns during health visits and (2)
child risk for DB disorders.
The study used the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NCHS) to
compare children in households where English was the primary language
to children in Hispanic households where Spanish was the primary
language. The sample comprised 29,692 NCHS households with parents
reporting on children under age 6 who had received preventive care in
the previous 12 months. The analysis assessed the association of
household primary language with child risk of DB disorder and
elicitation of DB concerns.
The authors found that
- After adjusting for child and family sociodemographic factors,
children in Spanish primary language households were less likely to be
at any risk or at moderate-high risk for DB disorders when compared to
children in English primary language households.
- Parents in Hispanic, non-English language households had
statistically similar levels of elicitation compared to parents in
Hispanic, English primary language households. Parents in non-Hispanic
English primary language households reported the highest levels of
elicitation of DB concerns.
- Among households with children at moderate-high risk for DB
disorders, parents in Spanish primary language households were less
likely to report elicitation of concerns than were parents in English
primary language households.
"This study is important because it shows that language and ethnic
differences may be one of the reasons that pediatric providers perform
developmental and behavioral assessment at variable rates, and that
language differences may correlate with differential child risk on
standard developmental screening instruments," conclude the authors.
Zuckerman KE, Boudreau AA, Lipstein EA, et al. 2009. Household
language, parent developmental concerns, and child risk for
developmental disorder. Academic Pediatrics 9(2):97-105. Abstract
available at http://www.academicpedsjnl.net/article/S1876-2859(08)00310-0/abstract.
- Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health Challenges in Children and
Adolescents at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_Mental_Conditions.html
- Social and Emotional Development in Children and Adolescents:
Knowledge Path at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_Mental_Healthy.html
- Culturally Competent Services: Resource Brief at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides/culturalcompetence.html
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and
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