Last week the Altarum Institute released a report highlighting Arizona as one of only 10 states to successfully integrate physical activity and nutrition criteria into Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for child care facilities. In Arizona, the quality rating system for child care is known as Quality First and is administered by First Things First. To [...]
Maybe you’ve heard the words “The Farm Bill” in the news over the years. The Farm Bill is a very large bill that guides the mission of the USDA- including the “food stamps” program- now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. The USDA law undergoes review and reauthorization about every 5 years- and [...]
This week is National Folic Acid Awareness Week and a great time to start taking a multivitamin with 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid every day. So, whether or not you’re planning to have a baby this year, you can start the New Year with healthy habits that will help give a baby a healthy start [...]
Keeping off the pounds is tough at any age. Now seniors are getting a helping hand from Medicare. Last month Medicare announced that it’s adding coverage for nutritional and behavioral counseling for those who are obese as measured by body mass index or BMI. BMI is a tool which measures weight status for adults- and [...]
Being born too soon is the number one killer of infants in Arizona and in the nation. Death rates from prematurity are declining but babies born too soon (before 37 weeks) often face medical, developmental and social challenges as they get older. More than 8,000 babies in Arizona were born too soon last year. This week the March [...]
You can think of the border public health advocacy network as a binational matrix of public health partners that collaborate to improve conditions along the US-Mexico border. The network includes national organizations like the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission along with state based partnerships like the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the annual U.S.-Mexico Border Governor’s Conference. Community based binational partnerships [...]
We know from research that the first five years of a child’s life are incredibly important. The brain is still being formed, and we have the chance to impact a kid’s whole life by building a strong foundation. One of the best places for public health to get involved is through child care. At ADHS, [...]
Recently, the department has received numerous inquiries about fad diets: Do they work? Are they safe? Will they help me lose weight? Our nutrition department put together a couple of tips to watch out for when it comes to dieting. 1) Promotes a drastic weight loss in a short period of time. Losing more than [...]
A few weeks ago I blogged about the June plenary session of the Arizona Mexico Commission called Arizona & Sonora: Gateway for Innovation. The conference provided an opportunity to move forward a bi-national agenda supported by Arizona and Sonora. The health committee discussed regional approaches to valley fever surveillance, burn patient infrastructure, substance abuse, TB, border [...]
The CDC released their grant guidance for the upcoming Community Transformation Grants a couple of weeks ago. The objective of the grant is to support the implementation (and evaluation) of evidence-based community preventive health activities to reduce chronic disease rates, prevent the development of secondary conditions, address health disparities, and develop a stronger evidence base [...]
