Every year the March of Dimes reviews where we are as a nation in reducing premature birth. Being born too early can impact a child’s ability to live a healthy life. It is one of the leading causes of infant death. Arizona has been improving the preterm birth rate for the past 7 years. In [...]
We did it… and by we, I mean ADHS and partners around the state. We accepted the Association of Territorial and State Health Officers (ASTHO) challenge to reduce the rate of babies born too early by 8% by 2014. On Friday, ADHS and the March of Dimes Arizona Chapter received the Virginia Apgar award. The [...]
The March of Dimes just released its annual report card marking how well states are doing in the battle to lower the percentage of babies born prematurely. Being born too soon can cause long-term disabilities in children including cerebral palsy, developmental delay, respiratory problems and vision and hearing problems. Sadly, prematurity is also the leading [...]
On June 18, we held a news conference with the Arizona March of Dimes and the Arizona Perinatal Trust to officially launch a new campaign to reduce preventable preterm births. We got great coverage this week, including a FOX News interview that aired in several other cities across the country. We’ve joined a national challenge issued by [...]
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Dr. David Lakey, this year’s President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials has selected the Healthy Babies Project for his national initiative- challenging each state to implement strategies to reduce prematurity and infant mortality based on successful national, regional, and state efforts to improve [...]
A trip to the emergency room with a sick or injured child is one of a parent’s worst nightmares, but it’s not uncommon. Last year in Arizona there were just over 400,000 emergency department visits by children ages 0–14. Not all hospital emergency rooms are equally equipped to provide care specific to children. Arizona is [...]
The name of the game for Public Health Prevention in 2011 is integration and leverage. Our Public Health Prevention Team will be focusing on the social determinants of health and working to implement policies, systems and environmental changes that make the healthy choices easy. Here are some examples of our public health prevention priorities for the [...]
