Ethics of Implementing US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations for Childhood Obesity.

Childhood obesity represents a serious and growing concern for the United States. Its negative consequences for health and well-being can be far-reaching, devastating, and intergenerational. In 2017, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a grade B recommendation for screening children and adolescents for obesity and offering or referring to comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions as indicated.

US Ventilator Allocation and Patient Triage Policies in Anticipation of the COVID-19 Surge.

Before the predicted March 2020 surge of COVID-19, US healthcare organizations were charged with developing resource allocation policies. We assessed policy preparedness and substantive triage criteria within existing policies using a cross-sectional survey distributed to public health personnel and healthcare providers between March 23 and April 23, 2020. Personnel and providers from 68 organizations from 34 US states responded.

American College of Preventive Medicine Statement on Prioritizing Prevention in Opioid Research.

Research is the foundation of evidence-based health care that motivates innovations in clinical interventions and public health. Prior and current research on opioid use has focused mainly on individual patient-physician relationships, opioid use disorder and treatment, and overdose responses. This article recommends 3 priorities for future research and investigates why, from clinical and ethical standpoints, future research should be directed toward building the capacity and increasing the effectiveness of population-based programs and improving prevention strategies.

Preventive Medicine: A hidden asset for building a dominant culture of prevention.

We explore three issues related to the practice of preventive medicine. First, how does the dearth of preventive medicine physicians on state licensure boards affect quality of medical care? Second, should a process be established to assess the training and skills of candidates for population health positions, like the "credentialing" or "privilege-granting" process used by hospitals and health systems for clinical positions? And third, how should the pervasive lack of recognition of preventive medicine as a bona fide medical specialty be addressed? In exploring these issues, we conclude that preventive medicine physicians are critical to the US health care ecosystem at every level, and to building a dominant culture of prevention. Preventive medicine physicians are actively engaged in the practice of medicine and should be party to the same licensure, credentialing, and privilege-granting procedures as all other specialties.

Practice-Based Evidence in Community Guide Systematic Reviews.

Objectives: To assess the relative contributions and quality of practice-based evidence (PBE) and research-based evidence (RBE) in The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide).

Methods: We developed operational definitions for PBE and RBE in which the main distinguishing feature was whether allocation of participants to intervention and comparison conditions was under the control of researchers (RBE) or not (PBE). We conceptualized a continuum between RBE and PBE.

Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12 - United States and Selected Sites, 2015.

Problem: Sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts can both be used to identify sexual minority youth. Significant health disparities exist between sexual minority and nonsexual minority youth. However, not enough is known about health-related behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes among sexual minority youth and how the prevalence of these health-related behaviors compare with the prevalence of health-related behaviors among nonsexual minorities.

CDC Grand Rounds: Adolescence - Preparing for Lifelong Health and Wellness.

Approximately 42 million adolescents aged 10-19 years, representing 13% of the population, resided in the United States in 2014 (1). Adolescence is characterized by rapid and profound physical, intellectual, emotional, and psychological changes (2), as well as development of healthy or risky behaviors that can last a lifetime. Parents have strong influence on their adolescent children's lives, and family-based programs can help parents support healthy adolescent development.

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance - United States, 2015.

Problem: Priority health-risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among youth and adults. Population-based data on these behaviors at the national, state, and local levels can help monitor the effectiveness of public health interventions designed to protect and promote the health of youth nationwide.

Reporting Period Covered: September 2014-December 2015.

A Conceptual Framework for Allocation of Federally Stockpiled Ventilators During Large-Scale Public Health Emergencies.

Some types of public health emergencies could result in large numbers of patients with respiratory failure who need mechanical ventilation. Federal public health planning has included needs assessment and stockpiling of ventilators. However, additional federal guidance is needed to assist states in further allocating federally supplied ventilators to individual hospitals to ensure that ventilators are shipped to facilities where they can best be used during an emergency.

Young People and HIV: A Call to Action.

HIV is having a significant impact on young people, among whom the rate of new diagnoses is high and health disparities are more pronounced. Incidence is increasing among young gay and bisexual men, and, among Black males, the largest percentage of new infections occur among those aged between 13 and 24 years. Youths are least likely to experience the health and prevention benefits of treatment.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model: a new approach for improving educational attainment and healthy development for students.

Background: The Whole Child approach and the coordinated school health (CSH) approach both address the physical and emotional needs of students. However, a unified approach acceptable to both the health and education communities is needed to assure that students are healthy and ready to learn.

Methods: During spring 2013, the ASCD (formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened experts from the field of education and health to discuss lessons learned from implementation of the CSH and Whole Child approaches and to explore the development of a new model that would incorporate the knowledge gained through implementation to date.

Updated preparedness and response framework for influenza pandemics.

The complexities of planning for and responding to the emergence of novel influenza viruses emphasize the need for systematic frameworks to describe the progression of the event; weigh the risk of emergence and potential public health impact; evaluate transmissibility, antiviral resistance, and severity; and make decisions about interventions. On the basis of experience from recent influenza responses, CDC has updated its framework to describe influenza pandemic progression using six intervals (two prepandemic and four pandemic intervals) and eight domains. This updated framework can be used for influenza pandemic planning and serves as recommendations for risk assessment, decision-making, and action in the United States.

Youth risk behavior surveillance--United States, 2013.

Problem: Priority health-risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among youth and adults. Population-based data on these behaviors at the national, state, and local levels can help monitor the effectiveness of public health interventions designed to protect and promote the health of youth nationwide.

Reporting Period Covered: September 2012-December 2013.

ILI-related school dismissal monitoring system: an overview and assessment.

Objective: This report provides an overview and assessment of the School Dismissal Monitoring System (SDMS) that was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Education (ED) to monitor influenza-like illness (ILI)-related school dismissals during the 2009-2010 school year in the United States.

Methods: SDMS was developed with considerable consultation with CDC's and ED's partners. Further, each state appointed a single school dismissal monitoring contact, even if that state also had its own school-dismissal monitoring system in place.

Rationale for periodic reporting on the use of adult clinical preventive services of public health priority--United States.

This supplement introduces a CDC initiative to monitor and report periodically on the use of a set of selected clinical preventive services in the U.S. adult population in the context of recent national initiatives to improve access to and use of such services.

Rationale for regular reporting on health disparities and inequalities - United States.

Most U.S. residents want a society in which all persons live long, healthy lives; however, that vision is yet to be realized fully.

Steps to a HealthierUS Cooperative Agreement Program: foundational elements for program evaluation planning, implementation, and use of findings.

The Steps to a HealthierUS Cooperative Agreement Program (Steps Program) enables funded communities to implement chronic disease prevention and health promotion efforts to reduce the burden of diabetes, obesity, asthma, and related risk factors. At both the national and community levels, investment in surveillance and program evaluation is substantial. Public health practitioners engaged in program evaluation planning often identify desired outcomes, related indicators, and data collection methods but may pay only limited attention to an overarching vision for program evaluation among participating sites.

Law as a tool for preventing chronic diseases: expanding the range of effective public health strategies.

Law, which is a fundamental element of effective public health policy and practice, played a crucial role in many of public health's greatest achievements of the 20th century. Still, conceptual legal frameworks for the systematic application of law to chronic disease prevention and control have not been fully recognized and used to address public health needs. Development and implementation of legal frameworks could broaden the range of effective public health strategies and provide valuable tools for the public health workforce, especially for state and local health department program managers and state and national policy makers.

Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations.

Users of clinical practice guidelines and other recommendations need to know how much confidence they can place in the recommendations. Systematic and explicit methods of making judgments can reduce errors and improve communication. We have developed a system for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations that can be applied across a wide range of interventions and contexts.

Developing and using the Guide to Community Preventive Services: lessons learned about evidence-based public health.

The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) is being developed under the leadership of the independent, nonfederal Task Force on Community Preventive Services. The Task Force makes recommendations for the use of public health programs and policies based on scientific evidence about what practices have worked to improve health. The Community Guide thoroughly searches scientific literature for topic-relevant studies, evaluates their quality according to established criteria, and makes recommendations based on the overall strength of the body of evidence and the size and variability of reported effects.