Prevention Matters

National Chlamydia Coalition (NCC) member, Dr. Alwyn Cohall has been named today’s Huffington Post’s Greatest Person of the Day. Dr. Cohall is a pediatrician who has dedicated his career to improving the health and lives of the children in Harlem. He is a Professor of Clinical Public Health and Pediatrics at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Cohall represents the American Academy of Pediatrics on the NCC and is an active participant in the public awareness committee. Through the Harlem Health Promotion Center and Project STAY, Dr. Cohall is tackling many of the major health problems faced by his community's youth. His work and dedication is truly an inspiration to us all. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Dr. Cohall!

Mara Leff
NCC Intern
Partnership for Prevention

The National Chlamydia Coalition (NCC) recently launched its new Facebook page. The page features the coalition’s mission and goals and links to NCC resources. It will be updated with news and interesting information on chlamydia, preventive services, other STDs, adolescent health, and related topics.  Check out the latest post on a creative chlamydia screening and surveillance initiative in the United Kingdom. To support the NCC on Facebook simply visit our page and click the “like” button. Don’t forget to share it with your friends and colleagues.

Partnership for Prevention was an invited guest at the December 2 launch of Healthy People 2020, with both Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, MBA, Chair, Partnership for Prevention, who also serves as Chair of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020 and Catherine M. Baase, MD, Global Medical Director, Dow Chemical and Secretary of the Board of Directors, making remarks.

Healthy People 2020, the ambitious agenda for improving the nation’s health, are the result of a multiyear process that reflects input from a diverse group of individuals and organizations. Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to:

• Encourage collaborations across sectors. 
• Guide individuals toward making informed health decisions. 
• Measure the impact of prevention activities. 

Healthy People 2020 strives to:

• Identify nationwide health improvement priorities. 
• Increase public awareness and understanding of the determinants of health, disease, and disability and the opportunities for progress. 
• Provide measurable objectives and goals that are applicable at the national, State, and local levels. 
• Engage multiple sectors to take actions to strengthen policies and improve practices that are driven by the best available evidence and knowledge. 
• Identify critical research, evaluation, and data collection needs. 

For further information, please visit http://healthypeople.gov/2020/ where users can tailor information to their needs and explore evidence-based resources for implementation.

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Study Finds Big Strides Made in Treating Leukemia, Lymphoma in Past Decade

Clinicians have made remarkable advances in treating blood cancers with bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants in recent years, significantly reducing the risk of treatment-related complications and death, a new study shows.


Between the early 1990s and 2007, there was a 41 percent drop in the overall risk of death in an analysis of more than 2,500 patients treated at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, a leader in the field of blood cancers and other malignancies.


WORST

Diabetes Epidemic Will Hit Half of U.S. by 2020


More than half of all Americans may develop diabetes or prediabetes by 2020, unless prevention strategies aimed at weight loss and increased physical activity are widely implemented, according to a new analysis.


These efforts could in theory also save about $250 billion in health care costs in the next 10 years, suggests the analysis published by UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization, a specialized center within UnitedHealth that focuses on health care reform issues.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

...antibiotics and STD screening.

This week CDC released its annual sexually transmitted diseases surveillance report, which showed that chlamydia and syphilis rates in the U.S. continued to rise in 2009. However, gonorrhea reached its lowest level in almost 70 years. All three STDs can be easily treated with antibiotics but can have serious consequences, including infertility and organ damage, if left untreated.

According to the report, chlamydia rates increased by 3% last year, with 409 cases per 100,000 people—representing an all-time high for reported chlamydia infections. The rate increased by almost 20% since 2006. On a positive note, CDC believes that the increase is likely attributed to expanded screening, and not an increase in the disease.

Unfortunately, large disparities still exist among racial and ethnic minority groups, with young African Americans baring a large burden of the disease.

STD screening can help detect disease early and, combined with treatment, is an effective way to protect a person’s health and reduce transmission to partners. One of the continuing problems is that less than half of the people who should be screened for STDs, do so. To help improve screening, as well as prevention and treatment of chlamydia, Partnership for Prevention convenes and leads the National Chlamydia Coalition, whose mission is to reduce the rates of Chlamydia and its harmful effects among sexually active adolescent and young adults.

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Smokers Urged to Join Thursday's Great American Smokeout

Get ready, get set, quit! Thursday marks the annual Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, which urges all smokers to lay off the habit for at least 24 hours. There have been dramatic changes in attitudes about smoking and a large decrease in smoking rates since the Smokeout was first held in 1977. The annual event includes local and nationwide events meant to encourage smokers to quit for at least one day in the hope that they may decide to permanently kick the habit. The Smokeout has helped focus attention on the dangers of tobacco use and contributed to a "cultural revolution" in tobacco control, says the American Cancer Society. Between 1978 and 2009, the percentage of adults who smoke in the United States fell from 34 percent to 21 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


WORST

Number of Uninsured Rises, Report Says


The number of uninsured adults in the United States continues to rise, with one in four adults under 65 reporting they were without health insurance at some point in the last year, according to a recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  About 50 million adults said they were uninsured for at least some time. The report is based on a survey conducted between January and March.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

Worksite wellness programs can be successful if implemented and executed correctly, a new study suggests. The study identifies six pillars that create a successful, strategically integrated wellness program regardless of an organizations size that include topics like multilevel leadership, alignment, and communication. The study examined 10 organizations across a variety of industries whose wellness programs have systemically achieved measurable results.

Worksite wellness programs have a history of being effective at increasing employee health while decreasing health care cost. Since 1995, Johnson & Johnson’s employee wellness program has cumulatively saved the company $250 million on health care, and from 2002-2008 the return was $2.71 for every dollar the company spent. Other organizations have had similar results with their worksite wellness programs. MD Anderson Cancer Center within the last 6 years was able to decrease lost works days by 80%, and the software firm SAS Institute was able to lower voluntary attrition to just 4% with their worksite wellness program.

Partnership for Prevention also recognizes the importance of worksite wellness programs with our Leading by Example initiative. The initiative includes publications designed to increase CEOs and CFOs understanding of the importance of worksite wellness programs by highlighting companies with exemplary comprehensive worksite wellness programs. Two new publications each featuring 16 companies will be released in the upcoming months.

For more information on the study please click here.


Katherine Ruffatto
Worksite Health Program Associate