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May 17, 2013 - Healthy People 2020 Objectives for Women
Here is an excellent table that identifies all the public health issues that women face today and the Healthy People 2020 target goals to improving women's health. As you can see from the baseline statistics, there is plenty of room for improvement.
While on the topic of women taking care of themselves, here is a "Pregnancy and Vaccination Pocket Guide" developed by the Minnesota Department of Health. It's always best to keep up with vaccines and get them at the appropriate time. However, exposure to potential pathogens may warrant getting some vaccines while pregnant. Important to keep in mind that some may be contraindicated. Check with your health care provider.
Womenshealth.gov provides a very helpful chart of what kinds of screening you should get to stay healthy, organized by age groups. See Screening Tests for Women.
The purpose of the 11th annual National Women's Checkup Day is to:
Encourage women to visit health care professionals to receive or schedule a checkup.
Promote regular checkups as vital to the early detection of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental health illnesses, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other conditions.
Then go to the National Women's Checkup Day: May 13, 2013 Page to make a pledge to schedule an appointment with your healthcare provider. I have! Your quality of life depends on it!
And, when you take the pledge, enter the state you are from and get a certificate to show your commitment to take care of yourself!
Happy Mother's Day to all women who believe in the power of nurturing! On this day, take a moment to reflect on how important it is to take care of ourselves so we can continue to nurture those we love!
Womenhealth.gov wants to raise awareness of why women should adopt the "It's Your Time" attitude. Check out the National Women’s Health Week Fact Sheet for 5 simple steps to good health and wellness!
May 10, 2013 - Women's Health and Mortality Chartbook
The Office of Women's Health's "Women's Health and Mortality Chartbook" is an excellent online interactive resource to search for state-level women's health data pertaining to:
Major causes of death among females (rate per 100,000)
Health risk factors (percent)
Preventive care (percent)
Health insurance coverage (percent)
See how women are doing in your state, by race and ethnicity, against Healthy People 2020 Objectives, and how your state ranks against other states.
Access the chartbook by clicking on the graphic.
Here is the Connecticut Profile . At a glance you can see which area Connecticut need to improve on when compared to Healthy People 2020's National Targets (e.g., current smoking, breast cancer, mammography, colorectal cancer screening), when it comes to women's health issues.
May 9, 2013 - Status of Minority Women's Health Disparities
"Since 2003, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has annually reported on progress and opportunities for improving health care quality and reducing health care disparities. As mandated by the U.S. Congress, the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) focuses on "national trends in the quality of health care provided to the American people" while the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) focuses on "prevailing disparities in health care delivery as it relates to racial factors and socioeconomic factors in priority populations." Priority populations include racial and ethnic minorities, low-income groups, women, children, older adults, residents of rural areas and inner cities, and individuals with disabilities and special health care needs." Citation source: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqrdr11/minority-women.html
Selected Highlights from 2011's report include:
Cancer: "Between 2000 and 2007, Black women had higher breast cancer death rates than White women."
Cancer: "Asian women were less likely than White women to receive a pap smear in 2008."
Cardiovascular disease: "...women's death rate from heart disease in 2008 was nearly eight times the death rate from breast cancer."
Cardiovascular disease: "AI/AN women were less likely to have their blood cholesterol checked than women of other racial groups."
Diabetes: "Women in all racial/ethnic groups had low rates of receiving all four recommended services for diabetes (i.e., two or more hemoglobin A1c measurements, dilated eye examination, foot examination, and flu shot)."
HIV/AIDS: "Minority women, particularly Black women, are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2006, HIV/AIDS was the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanic men and women ages 35-44."
Maternal and Child Health: "In 2008, AI/AN women were significantly less likely to receive prenatal care during the first trimester than other women."
Maternal and Child Health: "In 2008, AI/AN women were significantly less likely to receive prenatal care during the first trimester than other women."
Mental Health and Substance Abuse: "An estimated 26.2% of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."
Mental Health and Substance Abuse: "In 2009, Black women received treatment for depression less frequently than White women and Hispanic women received treatment less frequently than non-Hispanic White women."
Mental Health and Substance Abuse: "In 2009, Hispanic women received treatment for substance abuse less frequently than non-Hispanic White women."
Health Care Delivery and Systems: "In 2008, the percentage of women whose provider did not listen, explain things well, respect what they had to say, or spend enough time with them was higher for Blacks than for Whites."
Health Care Delivery and Systems: "In 2008, the percentage of women who indicated that their provider did not include them in making decisions about their care was higher for Asians than for Whites."
Overall, heart disease (24%) is the leading cause of death, followed by cancer (22.2%). This is not necessarily true for all women of color. Heart disease is only the leading cause of death for white and black females. Cancer is the leading cause of death for American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander and Hispanic females!
While stroke is the 3rd leading cause of death for females, overall, this is only true for all women of color. For white women, chronic lower respiratory diseases is the 3rd leading cause of death, probably due to tobacco use.
Suh mortality data indicate the importance of looking at such disparities by race and ethnicity as it helps to identify areas that may be missed by just looking at the overall population. For example, tobacco cessation messages may need to target white women more, while encouraging cancer screening among women of color would help to reduce the greater cancer mortality among these women.
NCHS 2006 statistics show that heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death for postmenopausal women.
"The largest health threat to women over aged 50 is cardiovascular disease.
In women age 45-49, the incidence of cardiovascular disease is 3 times lower than men of matched age. However, data from the Framingham study have shown that by age 75-79, a woman's risk of heart disease increases and equals a man's risk for her age."
Citation source: http://www.endotext.org/aging/aging17/agingframe17.htm
May 6, 2013 - A Timeline of CDC/ATSDR Contributions to Women's Health
Want an overview of public health issues affecting U.S. women today? Well, then check out the timeline the CDC and ATSDR have developed to document what they have done to improve the quality of women's lives.
The "2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans" is the most current
national guidance regarding physical activity. Key Guidelines include:
Children and Adolescents (aged 6–17)
Children and adolescents should do 1 hour (60 minutes) or more of physical activity every day.
Most of the 1 hour or more a day should be either moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.
As part of their daily physical activity, children and adolescents should do vigorous-intensity activity on at least 3 days per week. They also should do muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days per week.
Adults (aged 18–64)
Adults should do 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, preferably spread throughout the week.
Additional health benefits are provided by increasing to 5 hours (300 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both.
Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups performed on 2 or more days per week.
Older Adults (aged 65 and older)
Older adults should follow the adult guidelines. If this is not possible due to limiting chronic conditions, older adults should be as physically active as their abilities allow. They should avoid inactivity. Older adults should do exercises that maintain or improve balance if they are at risk of falling.
Citation source: "At-A-Glance: A Fact Sheet for Professionals" http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/factsheetprof.aspx
"National Women's Health Week is a weeklong health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health. It brings together communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups in an effort to promote women's health and its importance. It also empowers women to make their health a priority and encourages them to take the following steps to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases:
Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.
Get active.
Eat healthy.
Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.
Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, not wearing a seatbelt or bicycle helmet, and texting while driving.
Once again, I am pleased to host an online event on my Web site. Like the last two years, I will be devoting May's blog entries to women's health. This year's theme is: Critical Public Health Issues Affecting Women Today As you can see, I will be covering a variety of topics, and if it runs over into June, then so be it. Hope you learn something new in the coming weeks about health of over half the world's population!
April 30, 2013 - Aurora Borealis 2013-03-17
April 29, 2013 - Shawn Reeder's Majestic Yosemite & Sierra in Time-lapse Photography.
August 25, 2012 - www.bettycjung.net is now 13 Years Old!
It is hard to believe that it has been 13 years since I published the first webpages that turned into this Web site. Many thanks to the thousands of visitors who contributed millions of hits during the past 13 years, and for all the nice comments along the way. I will continue to strive to make this Web site a worthwhile place to spend your time and find credible public health and health information.
May 1, 2012 - An Infomous Visualization of Betty C. Jung's Tweets
How cool is this? Here is a visualization created by Infomous that shows what I have been recently posting on Tweeter!
March 1, 2012 - THANK YOU!!!
February 1, 2012 - Betty C. Jung's Web site is a Healthy People Consortium Organization
I have always supported Healthy People's goals and objectives. Now, as a Healthy People Consortium Organization I will continue to do so in a more focused way.
"The Consortium is a diverse, motivated group of agencies and organizations committed to achieving Healthy People 2020 goals and objectives." http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/consortium/default.aspx
I will continue to add new links to and post pertinent updates on my Public Health Blog.
For starters, click on "Map-It" graphic for "MAP-IT: A Guide To Using Healthy People 2020 in Your Community." Also, check out: Healthy People 2020 program planning tools, a toolkit for program development!
Links to public health pages, SCSU Thesis/Special Project documents and forms, SCSU Public Health Alumni Pages - MPH Accreditation Committee, Scholarship Committee, Service Committee (Mentor, Speaker Programs) pages; MPH Alumni Record - Main, Accomplishments, Presentations, Professional organizations, Programs & Projects, Teaching, Written Works pages
Are you interested in keeping up with what's going with on in the world of Public Health? Subscribe now!!! Inaugurated 10/13/2000, E-News goes out on the 15th of every month!
The Public Health Jobs Electronic Mailing List is doing well. Anticipate approximately weekly listings of approximately 100 jobs arriving in your E-mailbox!
Academic Info The Role of Higher Education in Career Development: Employer Perceptions December, 2012; Database of Accredited Post-Secondary Institutions and Programs;
Chinese Culture Minority Women's Health - Asian-Americans; Asian American Populations; Capacity Building for Diabetes Outreach A Comprehensive Tool Kit for Organizations Serving Asian and Pacific Islander Communities 2008;
Nutrition Resources DASH Diet for Heart Health; The Truth About Vitamin D; 5 Strange-but-True Food Facts; 14 Foods You Should Never Eat; Do Fats Do in the Body?; 7 Surprising Reasons to Give Up Sugar;
Publications “The Program Proposal Writing Project: Introducing College Students to Public Health Program Planning with the Use of the Community Guide”;
Public Health Data Self-Reported Hypertension and Use of Antihypertensive Medication Among Adults — United States, 2005–2009; Percentage of Adults Who Often Felt Very Tired or Exhausted in the Past 3 Months,* by Sex and Age Group - National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2010-2011†; Incidence and Trends of Infection with Pathogens Transmitted Commonly Through Food — Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, 10 U.S. Sites, 1996–2012; Percentage of Adults Ever Told They Have Some Form of Arthritis or a Related Condition,* by Sex, Race/Ethnicity, and Hispanic† Subpopulation — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2011§; Number of Deaths From Poisoning,* Drug Poisoning,† and Drug Poisoning Involving Opioid Analgesics§ — United States, 1999–2010; Consumption of Added Sugars Among U.S. Adults, 2005–2010;
Public Health Data Annual Age-Adjusted Death Rates*† for Suicide and Homicide, by Black or White Race — United States,§ 1999–2010; National Survey of Service Providers on Police Response to Immigrant
Crime Victims, U Visa Certification and Language Access; Motor Vehicle Traffic-Related Pedestrian Deaths — United States, 2001–2010; Unintentional Poisoning; Mental Health Surveillance Among Children — United States, 2005–2011;
Public Health Program Development Toolkit “The Program Proposal Writing Project: Introducing College Students to Public Health Program Planning with the Use of the Community Guide”;
Public Health Sites D-G Resources Available for Local and State Public Health Officials: Preparing for and Responding to Bombing Events; Policy Impact: Prescription Painkiller Overdoses;
Public Health Sites H-L Emergence of Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus Causing Severe Human Illness — China, February–April 2013;
Career Resources The Role of Higher Education in Career Development: Employer Perceptions December, 2012; 10 things you might be doing that could hurt your career; 10 things that define a true professional; This is why your resume was rejected;
Here is an excellent table that identifies all the public health issues that women face today and the Healthy People 2020 target goals to improving women's health. As you can see from the baseline statistics, there is plenty of room for improvement.
