Publications by authors named "Shaila Serpas"

Providing aspirin during pregnancy is a critical intervention proven to reduce the rates of preeclampsia in patients at risk. This quality improvement project prepared family medicine residents to use public health strategies to improve screening of pregnant patients at risk for preeclampsia in an underserved population. A preeclampsia awareness campaign was launched utilizing a publicly available toolkit, while a multidisciplinary team implemented systemic clinical changes to increase the rates of preeclampsia risk factor screening and aspirin prescription to prevent preeclampsia.

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Background: Approximately one third of California school-age children are overweight or obese. Legislative approaches to assessing obesity have focused on school-based data collection. During 2010-2011, the Chula Vista Elementary School District conducted districtwide surveillance and state-mandated physical fitness testing (PFT) among fifth grade students.

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A collaborative approach to identify opportunities for interactions between multiple systems is an important model for childhood obesity prevention. This paper describes a process aligning multiple partners in primary care, public health, university research, schools, and community organizations. Jointly implemented strategies in a Latino underserved community included: (1) building an effective and sustainable collaborative team; (2) disseminating a healthy weight message across sectors; (3) assessing weight status and healthy weight plans in primary care, school, and early childhood settings; and (4) implementing policy changes to support healthy eating and physical activity.

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