Maternal and Child Health Library
This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html.
October 26, 2007
1. Review of Adolescent Clinic Programs Suggests
Promising Elements of Success
2. Report Card Assesses Women's Overall Health at the
National and State Levels
3. Lancet Focuses on Experiences and Lessons of Global
Pregnancy and Childbirth Initiatives
4. Special Journal Issue Provides Updated Description of
School Health Programs Nationwide
5. Article Looks at Relationship Between Children's
Receipt of Dental Checkups and Nondental Health Professionals' Advice
that Children Have Checkups
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1. REVIEW OF ADOLESCENT CLINIC PROGRAMS SUGGESTS PROMISING ELEMENTS
OF SUCCESS
What Helps in Providing Contraceptive Services for Teens presents an
overview of what is known about carefully evaluated clinic
interventions that help prevent adolescent pregnancy. The monograph,
produced by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, is based
on a review of 12 recent studies of adolescent clinics. The authors
provide information about three basic models (clinic-based
interventions, school-based or school-linked interventions, and
interventions that include peer providers) and the special protocols
for adolescents within these models that appear to improve adolescent
contraceptive use. The twelve most effective programs and their
evaluations are presented and summarized in a chart, which includes
information about the study sample, the specific behavioral impacts,
and other details about the programs and the evaluation. The monograph
is available at http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/data/pdf/WhatHelps.pdf.
More information and materials on this topic are available at http://www.teenpregnancy.org/works.
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2. REPORT CARD ASSESSES WOMEN'S OVERALL HEALTH AT THE NATIONAL AND
STATE LEVELS
Making the Grade on Women’s Health: A National and State-by-State
Report Card 2007 is the fourth in a series of triennial reports to
grade and rank each state based on 27 health status benchmarks
developed largely using goals set by the Healthy People 2010
initiative. The report is a project of the National Women's Law Center
and Oregon Health and Science University and reflects the importance of
improving women’s health and the substantial commitment required to do
so. Besides grading and ranking each state on key benchmarks, the
report evaluates whether states have adopted 63 key policies important
for women's health. The report focuses on health insurance coverage and
access, particularly on policies to improve or weaken Medicaid
coverage, and also measures women's health by examining their economic
security. The report is available at http://hrc.nwlc.org.
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3. LANCET FOCUSES ON EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS OF GLOBAL PREGNANCY AND
CHILDBIRTH INITIATIVES
The October 13, 2007, issue of the Lancet reflects on efforts to reduce
the global burden of pregnancy-related illness and death and to
ameliorate the challenges faced by women and their families. The issue
contains research and policy articles on topics to inform discussion
and action, including the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Safe
Motherhood Initiative and WHO's larger, broader successor, the
Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health; new estimates of
maternal mortality and regional mortality trends; and the links between
maternal health, women's status, and broader development. Other topics
include an initiative to boost the number of trained midwives in
Afghanistan, Rwanda's efforts to make health-facility deliveries more
feasible, maternal mortality inequalities in Nepal, and Ecuador's
intercultural approaches to maternal and child health. Original
articles present a 30-year cohort study of the determinants of
reduction in maternal mortality in Bangladesh as well as a longitudinal
study of the health of women after severe obstetric complications in
Burkina Faso. New findings on global abortion rates and trends are also
presented. The full-text content is available to subscribers at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue?issue_key=S0140-6736(07)X6043-4.
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4. SPECIAL JOURNAL ISSUE PROVIDES UPDATED DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOL HEALTH
PROGRAMS NATIONWIDE
The October 2007 issue of the Journal of School Health provides a
comprehensive description of the 2006 School Health Policies and
Program Study (SHPSS), a national survey to assess school health
policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom
levels. The special issue features 11 articles that describe key school
health policies and practices across eight school health program
components, including health education, physical education and physical
activity, health services, mental health and social services, nutrition
services and foods and beverages available at school, healthy and safe
school environment, faculty and staff health promotion, and family and
community involvement in schools. The journal is available at http://www.ashaweb.org/journal_schoolhealth.html#shpps.
More information about SHPSS 2006, including fact sheets, state-level
summaries, data files and archives, and general information is
available from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion at http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHPPS/index.htm.
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5. ARTICLE LOOKS AT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN'S RECEIPT OF DENTAL
CHECKUPS AND NONDENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS' ADVICE THAT CHILDREN HAVE
CHECKUPS
"These data illustrate that although children with differing levels of
income did not differ significantly in having received advice from a
nondentist health care provider to have a dental checkup, children with
higher levels of income were more likely than were children with less
income to actually seek a checkup," state the authors of an article
published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of the American
Dental Association. Although most Americans have benefited from
dramatic improvements in oral health services during the past few
years, these benefits have not reached evenly across all segments of
society. Significant differences in oral health continue to remain for
some population groups, with variations occurring according to sex,
age, geographical location, income, race and ethnicity, education
level, and insurance coverage status. This article examines the
practices of nondentist health professionals as measured by their
providing advice to children and adolescents to obtain a dental checkup
and the relationship of this advice with actual dental checkups, dental
checkups in the context of family income, and other sociodemographic
characteristics by analyzing data from the 2003 Medical Panel
Expenditures Survey (MEPS) conducted by the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality.
Using MEPS data, the authors provide national estimates of the
percentage of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population ages
2-17 who had a dental checkup and who received advice from a nondentist
health professional to have a dental checkup.
The authors found that
- Overall, 38% (n=9,516,000) of children and adolescents ages 2-17
from families with low incomes had a dental checkup in 2003, and 60%
(n=24,225,000) of children and adolescents from families with middle or
high incomes had a checkup.
- Hispanic children were less likely than Black or white children
to have had a dental checkup.
- Children whose parents had not graduated from high school were
less likely than those whose parents had at least a high school degree
to have had a dental checkup.
- Children whose health status was fair or poor were less likely
than those whose health status was excellent, very good, or good to
have had a dental checkup.
- Children who had only public health insurance or no health
insurance were less likely than those who had only private insurance to
have had a dental checkup.
- Among children and adolescents who had been advised by a
nondental health professional to have a dental checkup, checkup rates
for children from families with middle or high incomes were higher than
rates for children from families with low or middle incomes.
The authors conclude that "our data suggest that additional effort is
warranted to ensure that all children get needed or recommended dental
care."
Chu M, Swels LE, Guay AH. 2007. The dental care of U.S. children:
Access, use and referrals by nondentist providers, 2003. Journal of the
American Dental Association 138(10):1324-1331. Abstract available at http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/abstract/138/10/1324.
Readers: More information is available from the following MCH Library
resources:
- Oral Health and Children and Adolescents (knowledge path) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_oralhealth.html
- Oral Health (organizations resource list) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/action.lasso?-database=Organizations&-layout=Web&-response=/databases/OrgLists/orgs_oralhealth.html&-MaxRecords=all&-DoScript=auto_search_oralhealth&-search
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and
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