Birth Rates for U.S. Teenagers Reach Historic Lows for All Age and Ethnic Groups
The U.S. teen birth rate declined 9 percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching a historic low at 34.3 births per 1,000 women age 15 through 19. The rate dropped 44 percent from 1991 through 2010. Teen birth rates by age and race and Hispanic origin were lower in 2010 than ever reported in the United States, and fewer babies were born to teenagers in 2010 than in any year since 1946. Read more on sexual health.
Online Tool Estimates Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads on the Radio
A new online tool from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determines the extent of exposure to radio alcohol advertisements among young people ages 12 to 20 in 75 different media markets. The free tool is the first service to provide parents, health departments and other key audiences with customizable information on youth exposure to radio alcohol advertising. Read more on alcohol and public health.
Non-cancerous Brain Tumors Linked to Frequent High-dosage Dental X-rays
A new study published in the journal Cancer suggests that risk of meningioma, a potentially debilitating type of non-cancerous brain tumor, was associated with receiving frequent dental X-rays before X-ray dosages were lowered.
Researchers from the Yale University School of Public Health analyzed data from 1,433 patients who were diagnosed with the tumor as well as a control group of 1,350 individuals with similar characteristics who did not have the tumor. The study found that over a lifetime, individuals who developed meningioma were more than twice as likely as those in the control group to report having received “bitewing exams” (which use X-ray film held in place by a tab between the teeth) on a yearly or more frequent basis.
New CDC Report: More Than Half of Teenage Girls Who Had Unintended Pregnancies Had Not Used Contraception
Slightly more than half of U.S. teenage girls who had a child between 2004 and 2008, and reported that the pregnancy was unintended, did not use any form of birth control. A third of these respondents didn’t think they could get pregnant at the time, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Although the number of teens who get pregnant in the U.S. has fallen in recent years, the U.S. teen birth rate is still the highest of any developed country, with more than 400,000 births in 2009, according to the CDC. Read more on teen pregnancy.
American Lung Association Releases Tenth Annual State of Tobacco Control Report Card
Most states did a poor job of combating tobacco-caused disease in 2011, according to the 2012 State of Tobacco Control report from the American Lung Association. No state passed a strong smokefree air law, and Nevada weakened its existing law. Washington virtually eliminated a tobacco prevention and quit-smoking program, which a recent study found saved the state $5 for every $1 spent from 2000 to 2009. And, for the first year since the Lung Association released the first report in 2003, no state raised its tobacco tax significantly.
The report noted some federal progress:
- On January 1, 2011, the federal government began offering comprehensive quit-smoking benefits to its millions of employees and their families.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in June that the government will give states partial reimbursement for quit-smoking counseling services provided to Medicaid enrollees through state quit lines.
Read more on tobacco and public health laws.
HHS Funds to Help Low-income Households With Energy Costs
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service is releasing more than $863 million to help low-income households with their heating and other home energy costs. Read up on health and housing.
It’s been an exciting year for us at NewPublicHealth! We launched in March, and nine months, nine conferences and 568 posts later, we are ready to ring in the new year.
Here’s a glimpse into the inaugural year of NewPublicHealth, and the top posts by popularity.
- Power of Health IT for Public Health: A NewPublicHealth Q&A With Farzad Mostashari. This piece was a conversation with the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), about the evolving public health informatics field.
- Dr. Douglas Jutte: My Patient’s Most Pressing Health Concern Was a Broken Carburetor. Dr. Jutte provided a personal commentary on how unmet social needs—like access to nutritious food, transportation assistance and housing assistance—were sometimes the most critical in treating his patients. (Also check out a round-up of reader responses to this post.)
- Public Health and the Community Benefit: A NewPublicHealth Q&A With Abbey Cofsky. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that non-profit hospitals, starting in 2012, perform a community health needs assessment, and that the assessment serve as the foundation of an implementation plan to address identified needs. NewPublicHealth spoke with Abbey Cofsky, program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, about the public health opportunities this provision offers.
- The National Prevention Strategy: A NewPublicHealth Q&A With Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. Upon its launch, we spoke with the Surgeon General about the nation’s plan for increasing the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life.
- Teen Birthrates Down in U.S. But Still Lag Behind Other Developed Nations. This article looked at the April Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the latest stats on teen childbirth, such as, “Girls born to teen mothers are about 30% more likely to become teen mothers themselves.”
- Health Literacy: Reducing the Burden of a Complex Healthcare System. During Health Literacy Month, NewPublicHealth caught up with Linda Harris of the HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Cindy Brach of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality about federal efforts to improve health literacy and to reduce the burden of a complex healthcare system.
- The County Health Rankings 2011: Mobilizing Action to Improve Health. NewPublicHealth’s very first post announced the second annual County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that provides a standard way for counties to see where they are doing well and where they are not so they can make changes to improve health.
- What to Expect at the Health Data Initiative Forum: A Q&A With Todd Park. The Forum, presented by HHS and the Institute of Medicine, convened more than 500 people to showcase how health data can provide a rich seeding ground for new tools to support more informed decision-making by consumers, healthcare systems and community officials. NewPublicHealth spoke with Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer at HHS, to get his take on health innovation.
- HHS Leading Health Indicators: Health By Some New Numbers. NewPublicHealth was on the ground at the APHA Annual Meeting covering top news, including the announcement of the latest Leading Health Indicators from HHS, a set of the top national high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them.
- Housing Policy is Health Policy: A NewPublicHealth Q&A With HUD’s Raphael Bostic. Raphael Bostic of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spoke with NewPublicHealth about the role of housing in health, and new collaborations across sectors that recognize that providing healthier, more affordable housing can lead to significant health outcomes.
Runners up included Q&As with CDC Director Thomas Frieden and Virginia Comonwealth University researcher Steven Woolf; a post on public health mobile phone apps and a commentary on the popular movie Contagion.
These were just a handful of the conversations that captured our readers’ interests this year. Keep reading in 2012 for the latest in public health and new ways to prevent disease and health crises where they begin—in our communities.
Thanks for reading and for your always insightful comments. Have a happy, healthy New Year and we’ll see you in 2012!
Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, reports on some key public health concerns for children and teens in the current issue, published online today.
Vaccinating Children Against Chickenpox Also Helps Protect Babies Not Yet Eligible for the Vaccine
Giving the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine to children 12 months of age and older has significantly increased protection for infants too young for the shot, according to a study in the December 2011 issue of Pediatrics. The researchers say that before varicella vaccination began for children 12 months of age and older in 1995, infants were four times more likely to die from a varicella infection compared to children ages 1 to 14 years. Researchers tracked cases in children under 1 year of age from 1995 to 2007 and found that the infections declined by 90 percent even though infants were not eligible for the vaccine. The researchers say that because exposure to the virus continues to occur, improving vaccination coverage in all age groups will further reduce the risk for infants. Get more vaccine news.
Preventing and Treating Flat Head Syndrome in Babies
The recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that infants sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, has resulted in an increase of reports of babies with positional skull deformities (flat heads). The AAP has issued a revised clinical report to help pediatricians differentiate between infants with positional skull deformities and infants with a more serious condition that can lead to neurological damage or severe deformity. According to the report, most positional skull deformities can be corrected with physical therapy and noninvasive measures and special helmets—which can costs hundreds to thousands of dollars and are often not covered by insurance—are rarely necessary. The AAP says that if the condition appears to be worsening by 6 months, referrals should be made to pediatric neurosurgeons to decide if intervention is needed. Read more on maternal and infant health.
AAP Issues Booster Dose Recommendations for Meningococcal Vaccine
The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that in addition to teens receiving a meningococcal vaccine at age 11 or 12, a booster shot should also be given at age 16. Adolescents who get their first dose of meningococcal vaccine at or after 16 years of age do not need a booster dose. Additional booster recommendations are included in the policy statement for children who received the vaccine earlier due to certain health conditions and who are at increased risk of disease.
AAP Encourages Pediatricians to Talk to Adolescent Boys about Sexual Health and Health Care
A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages pediatricians to discuss age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health issues with adolescent male patients during routine office visits. The report also urges the physicians to deliver appropriate sexual and reproductive health care—including taking a sexual history, conducting an examination, administering vaccinations and providing age-appropriate guidance related to sex, relationships and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, HIV and unintended pregnancy. Read more on sexual health and teen pregnancy.
Healthcare for Young Adults in Prison
A policy statement just released by the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that incarcerated youth are entitled to the same standards of medical and mental health care as their peers in the community. The policy statement stresses that clinicians caring for incarcerated youth should have training and expertise in pediatrics or adolescent medicine. According to the policy statement, youth in the juvenile justice system should receive:
- A comprehensive history and physical exam
- Dental screening
- Mental health screening for psychiatric illness, substance abuse and neurological and developmental disorders
- HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing
- Pregnancy screening for all girls beyond the age of puberty
The policy statement also points out that that youth in prison have higher rates of substance abuse and mental health disorders and urges pediatricians to advocate for interventions that will be linked to continued care in the community following prison release.
U.S. Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low
The birth rate for U.S. teens age 15 to 19 years hit a record low in 2010, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, the birth rate for teenagers in this age group has declined for the last three years and 17 out of the past 19 years, falling to 34.3 births per 1,000 teenagers in 2010. That’s a 9 percent decline from 2009 and the lowest rate ever recorded in nearly seven decades of collecting data. And birth rates for younger and older teenagers and for all race/ethnic groups reached historic lows in 2010, according to the report. Read more on teen pregnancy.
Exponential Growth Rate Predicted for Americans 90 and Older
By 2050, the number of people 90 and older may reach 9 million, according to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, commissioned by the National Institute on Aging. In 1980, there were 720,000 people aged 90 and older in the United States. By 2010, there were 1.9 million people aged 90 and older. Read more on the health of older adults.
More Than 100,000 Physicians Will Get Electronic Health Records
More than 100,000 primary care providers have signed up to adopt certified electronic health records with help from Regional Extension Centers, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). ONC is supporting investment in electronic health record in hopes they will help improve quality of care and ultimately lower health care costs. Read more on health technology and public health informatics.
New Report Finds More People Worldwide Overweight than Hungry
The World Disasters Report from the International Federation of the Red Cross finds the number of overweight people in the word—one billion—tops the 925 million who are undernourished.
Not Enough Sleep Increases Risky Behaviors in Teenagers
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that 70 percent of high school students get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep per night for this age group, based on responses to the 2007 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Students who reported insufficient sleep were more likely to engage in health-risk behavior than students who reported sufficient sleep, including low physical activity, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, physical fights and unsafe sexual behavior.
New Vaccine Recommendations
The current issue of Pediatrics includes articles that detail new recommendations for the polio, Tdap and Hepatitis B vaccines. This update brings the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations in line with those of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Some of the new recommendations include:
- Hepatitis A vaccine for all household members and close contacts of an adopted child from a country with high rates of hepatitis A.
- A single dose of Tdap for children 7 through 10 years of age who were under-immunized or who have an incomplete vaccine history.
- Vaccinations for adults at risk of exposure and new guidelines for immunocompromised children.
U.S. Birth Rates for Teens 15-19 Years by Race/Ethnicity, 1991 and 2009 (Source: NCHS)
There’s good news — though not nearly enough — on the teen pregnancy front.
Teen birth rates in the U.S. have fallen by almost 40% over the last two decades, but more than 400,000 teenage girls still have babies each year in the U.S. — a rate up to nine times higher than in other developed countries.
The April issue of Vital Signs, a monthly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presents the statistics:
- About 50% of teen mothers get a high school diploma by age 22, compared with 90% of teen girls who do not give birth.
- Teen childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers about $9 billion each year.
- Girls born to teen mothers are about 30% more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
- Children of teen parents are more likely to do poorly in school and to drop out of school.
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