Maternal and Child Health Library

This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html

January 22, 2010

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Special Notice: Training Course in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology is a national program designed to build conceptual, technical, and analytic skills among professionals who have significant responsibility for collecting, processing, analyzing, and reporting maternal and child health data. The course will be held on May 10-14, 2010, in Chicago, Illinois, and is sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of their ongoing effort to enhance the analytic capacity of state and local health agencies. The application form (due February 26, 2010) is available at http://www.positiveoutcomes.net/mche

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1. CDC LAUNCHES TOOLKIT TO ACCOMPANY PHYSICAL ACTIVITY GUIDELINES

The Youth Physical Activity Guidelines Toolkit highlights strategies that families, schools, and communities can use to support physical activity among youth. The toolkit was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote the guidelines for children and adolescents included in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. A user guide provides an overview of all toolkit materials, offers suggestions for customizing components, and provides examples of use. Additional toolkit contents include fact sheets, a poster, and PowerPoint presentations on the roles of families, schools, and communities in promoting youth physical activity. The toolkit is available at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/physicalactivity/guidelines.htm#1

Readers: Print versions of the toolkit, including a CD-ROM with print-ready files of all materials, are also available at no charge at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/pubs/dash.aspx#Physical

• Almost one-third of CSHCN ages 3-17 experienced internalizing mental health symptoms.
• Girls were 16 percent more likely than boys to experience internalizing mental health symptoms.
• Compared with younger children (ages 3-5), older children were two to three times more likely to experience internalizing mental health symptoms.
• Children with behavioral problems were nearly six times more likely to experience internalizing mental health symptoms and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nearly twice as likely to experience internalizing mental health symptoms, compared with those who had neither ADHD nor behavior problems. The next-strongest condition-related association was observed for autism spectrum disorder, followed by frequent headaches or migraines.
• CSHCN who were moderately affected by their conditions were 1.6 times more likely to experience internalizing mental health symptoms, and those whose daily activities were always or usually affected were more than twice as likely to experience internalizing mental health symptoms, compared with those who were never affected.
• CSHCN whose care caused financial problems for the family or whose condition caused a family member to stop or to cut back on work were at increased risk for internalizing mental health symptoms.

• There was a significant intervention effect for parent proxy-reported child generic (but not asthma-specific) HRQOL, with CC plus PST superior to SC. There was no difference between the CC plus PST and CC groups, or between the CC and SC groups.
• CC plus PST participants had one-third the odds at T2 of having more than one nighttime asthma symptom per week, compared to SC participants. No T3 differences existed.
• There were no significant effects for child self-reported generic HRQOL, nor for asthma-specific HRQOL or daytime symptoms.
• No differences were found for emergency room or unscheduled office visits.

• Approximately 10 percent of infants and toddlers were at or above the 95th percentile of the weight-for-recumbent length growth charts.
• For children and adolescents, 11.9 percent were at or above the 97th percentile, 16.9 percent were at or above the 95th percentile, and 31.7 percent were at or above the 85th percentile of BMI for age.
• Overall, among children and adolescents ages 2-19, there were no statistically significant differences by sex at the three BMI cutpoints. However, there were significant differences in prevalence of high BMI between age groups and between racial and ethnic groups at each of the three BMI cutpoints.
• The only significant difference in prevalence was among boys (age 6-19) between the two time periods 1999-2000 and 2007-2008 at the 97th percentile of BMI for age.