Prevention Matters

Partnership for Prevention published a state case study telling the story of Colorado’s journey toward comprehensive tobacco cessation coverage. Entitled “A Collaborative Approach to Meeting the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations on Tobacco Cessation Screening and Intervention”, it describes how the Colorado Tobacco Cessation and Sustainability Partnership worked closely with public and private health plans to provide coverage for tobacco treatment. As a result, the majority of Colorado smokers have access to free or low-cost evidence-based cessation services and support for the state’s QuitLine has been enhanced. Advances were made in spite of decreased state tobacco control program funding.

Leaders in many states have begun to work with health plans to discuss the provision of preventive services. As the implementation of federal health reform moves forward it is Partnership’s hope that states can benefit from Colorado’s pioneering work in advancing tobacco cessation treatment. As states and territories progress toward a more integrated approach to preventive health, the Colorado Tobacco Cessation and Sustainability Partnership model for engaging health plans to implement USPSTF recommendations for cessation coverage can be applied to other preventive health services.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has over 100 E-Cards with healthy messages about smoking cessation, heart health, women’s health and many more. Send one to your mom for Mother’s Day to show her how much you care about her and her and wellbeing.

Despite education and awareness efforts, many myths about sex persist in our culture, particularly among young adults. Tonight, in accordance with the GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign and STD Awareness Month, MTV will air the Top Ten Most Outrageous Sex Myths. The show will debunk sex myths such as: “pulling out” is an effective prevention method against pregnancy and STDs; oral and anal sex aren’t really “sex”; if a woman is taking birth control pills, she doesn’t need to worry about STDs; STD testing is for cheaters; and many others. Check out the trailer for tonight’s show here or go to http://www.gytnow.com/ to learn more. And tune in tonight, April 26th, to MTV at 8:30 ET/PT to watch the show!

Partnership for Prevention’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jason Spangler, was interviewed by Luis Perez and Shantell Jamison on Chicago Public Media’s Vocalo Overdrive about STD prevention and sexual health. The key message of the interview was the importance of getting screened for STDs. Dr. Spangler also discussed providing a continuum of care, privacy issues, shifting away from fear-based health messages, and why the STD prevalence is so high. Overall, Dr. Spangler emphasized the need to make prevention a priority, discussing how only a small percentage of health care funding actually goes into prevention. You can listen to the entire broadcast here. For more information on STD awareness month visit the National Chlamydia Coalition or the GYT campaign.

Jacky Fontanella
Partnership for Prevention Intern

Consumption of excessive sodium is a direct cause of hypertension, which affects nearly 1 in 3 Americans. CDC’s next Public Health Grand Rounds, entitled Sodium Reduction: Time for Choice, will be webcast live from CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday, April 21st at 1 p.m. (EDT) at www.cdc.gov/about/grand-rounds. Dr. Darwin Labarthe, Director of CDC’s Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Division, will lead a discussion with other experts on the consequences of too much sodium in the diet and the regulatory and technological context for the use of salt in our food supply. The session will also review current sodium control efforts such as the National Salt Reduction Initiative and food procurement policies, and separate fact from fiction to support actions needed to address this very real public health burden.

Controlling the amount of sodium is not as simple as removing salt shakers from tables. Much of the sodium in food comes from processing and restaurant use. A multi-pronged strategy is needed to address the health consequences of excessive sodium. Tune in to the CDC webcast to learn the facts and options for addressing this critical issue.

Healthways CEO Ben Leedle, Jr. was joined today by Dan Buettner, Blue Zones founder and The New York Times best-selling author of Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest and Thrive-Finding Happiness the Blue Zone Way, on Capitol Hill for an educational seminar focused on health and well-being.

Ben Leedle opened the seminar with an overview of Healthways dedication to making the world a healthier place by being a leading provider of programs that maintain or improve public and personal health and well-being.

He demonstrated how, through their simulation model, Healthways is able to profile various populations to determine how that population will “age” in five years. Predicting health outcomes in a community allows Healthways to determine the most costly health related conditions for that population. Behavior change initiatives can then be added to the model to determine what kind of impact they will have on slowing the “aging” process of that population.

Teaming up with Blue Zone’s founder Dan Buettner, Healthways and Blue Zone have created Healthways Blue Zones Vitality City in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. Dan Buettner, an internationally recognized researcher, explorer and author implemented a successful prototype Blue Zone community in Albert Lea, MN. By applying the nine lifestyle characteristics, Power 9, Mr. Buettner and his team were able to improve the lives of individuals living in Alber Lea, MN.

This same principal will be applied to the South Bay area of Los Angeles with support from Healthways. Mr. Buettner ended the seminar on an enthusiastic note by illustrating the importance of how changing people’s environments can have, through his experience, the most impact on an individual’s health.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act created a renewed emphasis on community prevention and population health. With the Prevention and Public Health Fund and the Community Transformation Grants, resources are now available to improve the health of communities around the country. But how do you know how healthy your community is?

On Wednesday, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (http://www.rwjf.org/) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (http://uwphi.pophealth.wisc.edu/) released the 2011 County Health Rankings (http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/). The County Health Rankings are a key component of the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project—a nationwide call to action for improving community health—first released last year. The rankings generate 50 state reports, ranking each county within the 50 states according to its health outcomes and the multiple health factors that determine a county’s health. The four different types of health factors are health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment. Specific county-level data (as well as state benchmarks) are also available. The Rankings are built on America’s Health Rankings, an annual comprehensive assessment of the nation’s health on a state-by-state analysis, which is published jointly by United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.

Many counties around the country have used the Rankings to implement strategies and initiate interventions to positively influence health factors and improve their health outcomes. One specific example is Wyandotte County, Kansas, where Mayor Joe Reardon worked with other local stakeholders to create a Healthy Communities initiative after seeing his state’s low rank in last year’s County Health Rankings report.

A new development with this year’s Rankings is the launch of an innovative tool, the County Health Calculator (http://chc.humanneeds.vcu.edu/). The calculator is a new interactive online application that simulates the affect of higher levels of education and income on health in a county. It was developed by Center of Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University (http://humanneeds.vcu.edu/) with funding by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Read more on Partnership’s community prevention efforts here.