October 1, 2024
The Community Health Corner
Submitted by Stephanie Gutierrez
The National Extension Framework for Health Equity and Well-being recommends using community development strategies and health literacy programs to ensure that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. The following resources help us improve well-being for all, and achieve Healthy Kansas 2030 and Healthy People 2030 objectives.
Children's Environmental Health: Each year on the second Thursday of October, Children's Environmental Health Network rallies together with other people working to ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all children and celebrate Children’s Environmental Health Day (CEH Day). Mark October 10th on your calendar and get ready to celebrate CEH Day! This day will shine a light on children’s health issues, celebrate successes in the field, share exciting new initiatives, and discuss the challenges that lie ahead.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance: The 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) prevalence and trends data are now available online through CDC’s interactive prevalence and trend analysis tool. Celebrating 40 years of data collection this year, BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted telephone-based survey system in the world, providing timely and flexible state-level data on health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services.
Health-Related Behaviors: Health behavior maintenance is the ability to sustain health-related behaviors overtime, which is a core driver of positive health outcomes. While scientists have made strides in promoting short-term adoption of recommended health behaviors, sustaining these behaviors long-term has proven challenging. For more than 20 years, the behavioral and social sciences community at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has worked to promote health behavior maintenance. Recently, OBSSR and the NIH Adherence Research Network Scientific Interest Group have launched new efforts to further advance this field of research. In her latest Director’s Spotlight, Dr. Simoni discusses the science of health behavior maintenance and shares an overview of the initiatives OBSSR and the Adherence Network have launched to further advance this field of research, including a new health behavior maintenance page on the OBSSR website.
For more information, contact Elaine Johannes, ejohanne@ksu.edu; and Stephanie Gutierrez, smgutier@k-state.edu