Primary Health Care: Potential Home for Family-Focused Preventive Interventions.

Family-focused prevention programs have been shown to effectively reduce a range of negative behavioral health outcomes but have had limited reach. Three key barriers must be overcome to expand the reach of family-focused prevention programs and thereby achieve a significant public health impact. These barriers are (1) current social norms and perceptions of parenting programs; (2) concerns about the expertise and legitimacy of sponsoring organizations to offer parenting advice; and (3) a paucity of stable, sustainable funding mechanisms.

The transition to adult health care for youth with special health care needs: do racial and ethnic disparities exist?

Although the transition to adulthood for youth with special health care needs (YSHCN) has been gathering attention, the impact of racial and ethnic disparities on this process has been relatively unexamined. In this review, we explore evidence of disparities in the transition to adulthood for YSHCN, which is important because the problems that YSHCN face in transitioning to adulthood are, in large part, caused by interrupted access to high-quality health care and minority YSHCN and adults have many well-described gaps in access to quality care. Understanding the disparities in the transition process is essential to ensure that interventions designed to improve this transition will meet the needs of this high-risk population.

Impact of childhood obesity on employers.

The impact of childhood obesity on the workplace is not well understood. A study conducted for one large employer indicated that average per capita health insurance claims costs were as high as $2,907 in 2008 for an obese child and $10,789 for a child with type II diabetes. The average claims cost for children with type II diabetes actually exceeded the level of the average claims cost for adults with type II diabetes ($8,844).