In This Issue
New Tobacco Cessation Guide for the Armed Forces
Partnership Publishes Article on Federal Policies to Reduce Childhood Obesity
Partnership Promotes New Online Tool
Policy and Advocacy
Providers Miss Opportunity to Help People Quit Smoking
New Prevention Recommendations
Report Identifies Cost Effect Preventive Services
Surgeon General Focuses on Preventing Skin Cancer
2014 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services Available
Worksite Health ScoreCard Now Automated
Free Implementation Guides Available
Upcoming Webinar on Chlamydia Screening

Upcoming Events

      

ASTHO Annual Meeting

Sept 9-11, 2014 

 

Public Health Law Conference

Oct 16-17, 2014   

 

 NCSD Conference

Oct 28-31, 2014  

 

APHA Annual Meeting

Nov 15-19, 2014 


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Partnership Pulse

 July/August 2014


The CEO's Corner

In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) released "A Global Action Plan for Universal Eye Health 2014-2019." In 2010, WHO estimated that globally 285 million people were visually impaired, 39 million of whom were blind.

 

The WHO's vision "is a world in which nobody is needlessly visually impaired, where those with unavoidable vision loss can achieve their full potential, and where there is universal access to comprehensive eye care services."

 

The Affordable Care Act covers vision screening for children, but insufficient evidence for adults has kept the US Preventive Services Task Force from recommending universal vision screening for everyone. Therefore, Qualified Health Plans do not have to include adult vision coverage. Healthcare.gov states that "if adult vision coverage is important to you, check the details of any plan you're considering to see if it's included. If your Qualified Health Plan doesn't include adult vision coverage, you can buy a "stand-alone" vision plan." However, "Stand-alone vision plans aren't offered through the Marketplace, and tax credits can't be applied to them."

 

It seems clear that more research is needed to align US policy with the WHO's recommendations, or to determine why we shouldn't adopt the recommendations - to see the issue more acutely.

 

There is so much to do; perhaps the hardest thing to see clearly is how to prioritize the research that needs to be done to set the priorities!

 

Elissa Matulis Myers
President & CEO
Partnership News
ActionToQuit Releases New Tobacco Cessation Guide for the Armed Forces

Partnership for Prevention's ActionToQuit initiative released a new guide, Help Your Patients Quit Tobacco Use: An Implementation Guide for the Armed Forces. The guide makes the case that tobacco cessation treatment should be a standard of care at every patient encounter and it lays out steps for treatment facilities to integrate tobacco cessation services into clinical practice. In addition, it spotlights military treatment facilities and health promotion and wellness centers across the United States for their exceptional commitment to assisting service members, veterans, and their families to break-free from tobacco addiction. This resource can be used as a practical tool to supplement the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline on Management of Tobacco Use (2008). 

Partnership Publishes Article on Federal Policies to Reduce Childhood Obesity

On August 27, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published online the findings from Partnership's childhood obesity study. The study found that a national penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was the best option of three possible federal policies. This was due to the tax having a two-fold effect of reducing obesity while also generating significant revenue that could fund additional obesity prevention activities. The study estimated the potential impact that three federal policies could have on childhood obesity prevalence in 2032 (after approximately 20 years of implementation). The policies are: strengthening and expanding federally-funded after-school physical activity programs, a $0.01/ounce sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax, and a ban on child-directed fast food TV advertising. The study will be published in the December issue. 

Partnership Promotes New Online Tool To Help Communities Select Effective Interventions

Over the past two months, Partnership has widely promoted Community Health Advisor, a new decision-support tool that calculates the health and cost impact of implementing various smoking and physical activity policies and programs in communities. In July, Partnership demonstrated the website at the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) annual meeting and then for the Congressional Prevention Caucus at an open-house that brought many Hill staff interested in improving the health of their districts. In August, Partnership presented the website at the National Association of Local Boards of Heath (NALBOH) conference. Upcoming promotional events include the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Annual Meeting September 10-11 in Albuquerque, and the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting November 15-19 in New Orleans. We hope to see you there!

Policy and Advocacy

Nutrition: Partnership was one of several organizations that supported the introduction of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax Act, which would place a tax of 1 cent per teaspoon of sugar on many commonly consumed beverages that contained added caloric sweeteners. The revenue would provide critical funding for research, prevention, and treatment of obesity and other conditions caused by consuming sugary drinks.

 

Partnership and others wrote to Senator Blumenthal and Representative DeLauro to express support for S. 2342 and H.R. 2831, bills that remove the tax deductibility of expenses for marketing foods of poor nutritional quality to children. Food companies spend almost $2 billion/year advertising and marketing foods and beverages to children, nearly all of which offer little nutrition.

 

Tobacco: Partnership and other national organizations wrote to the Senate Defense Subcommittee to voice support for its bill that would end the discounting of tobacco products on all commissaries and exchanges. Rates of tobacco use in the military are higher than the civilian population and tobacco products are often sold at a significant discount on military bases.

 

Partnership also supported the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which recognizes the danger that liquid nicotine used to refill e-cigarettes poses to small children and gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers.  

 Prevention News

Health Care Providers Missing Opportunities to  Help People Quit Smoking 

It is well established that patients trust their health care providers and the advice they receive. Two recent studies highlight the extent to which health care providers are failing to ask about tobacco use and advise patients to quit. An analysis of the 2010 National Health Interview Survey found that half of respondents who smoked reported that any health care provider had advised them to quit in the past year, but only 1 in 10 reported that their dentists or hygienist advised them to quit. A separate analysis of the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that approximately one-third of all respondents reported their provider asked about tobacco use (32.2%) or advising them to stop or avoid it (31.4%). These surveys show that health care providers need better training in tobacco cessation interventions.  

New Prevention Recommendations 

In August, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices released updated recommendations for the seasonal influenza vaccine. The new recommendations pertain to the upcoming 2014-2015 flu season.

 


The Community Preventive Services Task Force recently issued  recommendations for

helmet laws and education programs to improve health equity.

 

Helmet Laws: The Task Force recommends universal motorcycle helmet laws to increase helmet use and reduce motorcycle-related deaths and injuries based on strong evidence of effectiveness. Universal helmet laws should be implemented in place of partial helmet laws or no laws.

Health Equity: The Task Force released recommendations that improve health equity through education programs:
  • High school completion programs. The Task Force recommends high school completion programs for students at high risk for non-completion (including those at risk because they are pregnant or have children) based on strong evidence of effectiveness. 
  • Out-of-school time academic programs. The Task Force recommends three types of such programs to improve academic achievement: reading-focused (strong evidence of effectiveness), math-focused (sufficient evidence of effectiveness) and general (sufficient evidence of effectiveness). These programs are offered outside of school hours to students who are low-achieving or at risk of low achievement. 

 

 

 

 

 

In July and August, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

issued final research plans for four services: primary care screening for depression in adults, screening for breast cancer, screening for skin cancer, and screening for pre-eclampsia. The USPSTF also issued a final recommendation statement for screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (D grade). The Task Force recommended against screening the general adult population for this condition, which is a risk factor for stroke.

 

The USPSTF also released a final recommendation statement on  behavioral counseling to promote a healthful diet and physical activity for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in adults with cardiovascular risk factors (B grade). The Task Force recommends offering or referring adults who are overweight or obese and have additional CVD risk factors to behavioral counseling. 

Resources and Reports  
GAO Report Identifies Cost Effective Preventive Services

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report identifies clinical preventive services that are cost-effective and cost-saving. Services shown to be cost-saving include aspirin to prevent a first heart attack, tobacco cessation therapies, and childhood immunizations, which are the same services shown to be cost-saving in Partnership's ranking of preventive services. The preventive services considered in the GAO's analysis include vaccines, medications, screenings, lifestyle interventions, clinical interventions, and drug treatments.

New Surgeon General Call-to-Action Focuses on Preventing Skin Cancer        

A new Surgeon General call-to-action on skin cancer highlights a growing and largely preventable public health problem. Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and rates continue to increase. The call-to-action includes a full report, Executive Summary, consumer materials, and other educational resources.

2014 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services Now Available          

The 2014 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, is now available. It contains all active Task Force recommendations issued since 2004, including 28 new and updated recommendations issued since the 2012 version. It also contains at-a-glance summary tables, information about topics in development and background on the Task Force. The Guide is an important resource that can help primary care clinicians and patients decide together which preventive services a patient needs.

CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard is Now Automated  

The CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard (HSC) is now available online. The HSC is designed to help employers assess the extent to which they have implemented evidence-based health promotion interventions in their worksites. The CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard assists employers in identifying gaps in their health promotion programs, and helps them to prioritize high-impact strategies for health promotion at their worksites. A wide variety of professionals can use the HSC to assess worksite health promotion efforts, making the ScoreCard a great resource for CDC partners and grantees.

Announcements  

Free Implementation Guides Available          

Partnership has been cleaning house and has free hard copies (excluding shipping and handling) available of some of its implementation guides. These guides were all developed by Partnership and its partners. The guides that are available are:

Please contact Olivia Huckaby ([email protected]) for more information and to work out shipping arrangements.

Register Now for Webinar on Reconceptualizating Screening for Chlamydia Control  

As part of the STD Prevention Science Series, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is hosting a free, live webinar, "STD Prevention Science Series: Reconceptualizing Screening for Chlamydia Control: Process Considerations, Targets and Outcomes" on September 25, 2014 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET. Dr. Edward W. Hook III, M.D., Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, is presenting. Dr. Hook is also a member of and spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Health, which is managed and convened by Partnership. Register here.

Partnership for Prevention was founded in 1991 by leaders dedicated to making disease prevention and health promotion a national priority and America a healthier nation. Partnership seeks to increase understanding and use of clinical preventive services and population-based prevention to improve health.