While we’ve made significant strides in reducing cigarette smoking among youth in Arizona, the use of electronic nicotine products, also called e-cigarettes or vape, are on the rise. According to a recent Vital Signs published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in four high school students and one in 14 middle school [...]
Today we released a new report highlighting recent activities in the fight to reduce opioid overdoses and deaths in our state, and a look at opioid surveillance data in the past year. The report highlights some areas of great progress: ADHS established final rules for pain management clinics and began taking applications in January 2019 [...]
Physical activity is fun, can be done anywhere and anytime, and can have positive benefits to your health. From now until the end of July, the Arizona Department of Health Services’ AZ Health Zone is featuring a new public awareness campaign called “Every. Day. Active.” The campaign includes statewide digital ads and social media that shows [...]
February is an ideal time to encourage our families, friends, and communities to be involved in heart health. With every heartbeat, blood is pumped through 60,000 miles of blood vessels, delivering important nutrition and oxygen to organs and tissues. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the leading global cause of death with more [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) performs studies each year to determine how well the influenza (flu) vaccine protects against flu. They recently released the 2018–2019 interim influenza vaccine effectiveness results that highlight how the vaccine helps to protect our communities from the disease. Overall, the vaccine was 47% effective in preventing individuals [...]
Every day, public health works to keep Arizonans healthy and well by promoting good choices like healthy eating, regular physical activity, smoking cessation, vaccinations, and injury prevention through seatbelt and helmet use. We know that these choices lead to good health, but we also know that it's not always easy—or even possible—to make these choices. Many factors, including something known as [...]
Childhood lead poisoning is considered the most preventable environmental disease among young children. Lead poisoning can negatively affect children’s intelligence, behavior, hearing, and development. The most common sources of elevated blood lead levels in Arizona are lead-based paint found in homes built before 1978, imported goods such as spices, makeups, and ceramic pottery, lead in [...]
Every year, Trust for America’s Health releases a report that shows their rankings of states’ public health preparedness. Like most years, this year’s report uses a combination of measures that may or may not be under the control of state health departments to develop their state rankings. Arizona shows up in the bottom tier of this year’s [...]
Public health professionals use data to drive decisions about public health priorities, the need for new programs or policies, and the effectiveness of public health intervention. However, without clear and accessible data, it’s difficult to make informed decisions. That’s why over the last several years, we’ve worked hard to improve our data displays to enhance [...]
Earlier this week, the State of Washington declared a public health emergency due to a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 40 people to date. Luckily, no Arizonans have been infected with measles associated with this outbreak, but the fact that measles outbreaks still occur underscores the importance of up-to-date vaccination for all children. ADHS [...]
