10 research outputs found
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Who Are America's Poor Children? Examining Health Disparities Among Children in the United States
Good health goes a long way, as research suggests that poor health in childhood not only impedes early child development, but can also have lasting consequences on children's future health and wellbeing. Although many would agree that a health is a fundamental right, children born into low-income families are less likely to enjoy this right. As part of NCCP's Who are America's Poor Children? series, this report draws on the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to provide an overview of the health of America's children by poverty status from 2007 to 2009. To assess health disparities between poor and nonpoor children, it identifies a list of publicly available annual indicators within the following five broad domains of health: environmental health, health insurance coverage, access to healthcare services, behavior, and health outcomes. We find evidence of disparities between poor and nonpoor children within each of these five domains. These findings are consistent with two longstanding conclusions within the field of public health. First, "the relationship between socioeconomic status and health is one of the most robust and well documented findings in social science." Second, this relationship is reciprocal, as poverty detracts from resources used to maintain health, while poor health detracts from the educational and employment paths to income mobility. Following a framework developed by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, this paper suggests five key domains of health: environmental health, health insurance coverage, access to healthcare services, behavior, and health outcomes. While income is one of the leading predictors of health disparities, it is not the only one (and often is associated with other risks). The influences of race and ethnicity, neighborhood safety and collective efficacy, family structure, and many other factors, are also critically important, though not examined here. With the exception of the two readily available survey indicators of reported emotional difficulties and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, we do not examine indicators of social-emotional well-being and mental health
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Indicators for Social-emotional Development in Early Childhood: A Guide for Local Stakeholders
Social-emotional development in young children encompasses how young children feel about themselves, how they behave and how they relate to people close to them, such as caregivers, teachers, and peers. Although infant and early childhood mental health are often used in the same way, the term social-emotional development illustrates the importance of prevention and early intervention. There is strong evidence linking social-emotional health in the early childhood years (birth to 6) to subsequent school success and health in preteen and teen years, and to long term health and wellbeing in adulthood. However, research also shows that effective programs that address social-emotional health early in life can promote resilience and actually prevent mental health problems later in life
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State-level Indicators for Social-emotional Development: Building Better Systems
Research repeatedly suggests that experiences and skills acquired early in life have a long lasting effect. Many interventions that promote social-emotional well-being and preventing mental health problems in children and their caregivers are clinically sound and cost effective. Social-emotional well-being is also seen as a crucial determinant of school readiness, while school readiness is critical to educational and health outcomes. Research evaluating appropriate interventions and investigating the importance of school readiness makes a strong case for creating a system to monitor social-emotional development in the effort to improve the well-being of young children. Indicators are a key part of this monitoring system and promote accountability by providing decision-makers and researchers with information they need to understand and meet local and state needs, to assess the provision and quality of interventions, and to address gaps in services to young children and families. The ability to track and assess social-emotional development of young children in a community poses a special challenge to policymakers. For many other areas within early childhood it is possible to understand the status and trends for child well-being at the population level. For instance, data on infant mortality, immunizations, and child welfare at the local, state and national level can be accessed to inform health promotion and prevention efforts. Currently, such multi-level data on social-emotional development for young children is not easily available. The challenge to quantify social-emotional wellness at a population level stems in part from the lack of universally accepted indicators and infrastructure for collecting information in this domain of child development. This report addresses the process of creating a system of indicators for social-emotional wellness, examines recent state experiences in this area, and describes a framework for moving forward in the development of social-emotional indicators for state policymakers
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Pediatric Medical Homes: Laying the Foundation of a Promising Model of Care
In recent years the nation's health care system has accelerated the development and implementation of a new model of patient care -- the medical home. States, insurers, health care delivery systems, and individual practices are increasingly exploring ways to leverage medical homes to improve the quality of care and limit increases in health care costs. This Thrive report describes the current status of the medical home concept and explains how it has been broadly defined, applied to children, and measured. It also reports on the number and characteristics of American children served by medical homes and discusses opportunities to further leverage medical homes to improve medical care and achieve better health outcomes for young children, with a particular focus on the coordination of care for vulnerable children. The medical home concept builds on the foundations of primary care and managed care. Though the model is increasingly being recommended for all people, medical home implementation often prioritizes the goal of improving the quality and management of care for individuals with chronic disease or other critical health-impacting factors. Originally conceived by pediatricians over four decades ago, the medical home concept has become much more visible recently, particularly within the context of health care reform. The development of the medical home model of primary care can be traced back to the 1960s, but not until the 1990s did the advent of managed care prompt more focused exploration of potential payment models that could support broader implementation of medical homes. As a result, recent years have seen a high degree of activity around the definition, accreditation, and reimbursement of medical homes
Genetically engineered minipigs model the major clinical features of human neurofibromatosis type 1.
Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disease caused by mutations in Neurofibromin 1 (NF1). NF1 patients present with a variety of clinical manifestations and are predisposed to cancer development. Many NF1 animal models have been developed, yet none display the spectrum of disease seen in patients and the translational impact of these models has been limited. We describe a minipig model that exhibits clinical hallmarks of NF1, including café au lait macules, neurofibromas, and optic pathway glioma. Spontaneous loss of heterozygosity is observed in this model, a phenomenon also described in NF1 patients. Oral administration of a mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase inhibitor suppresses Ras signaling. To our knowledge, this model provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the complex biology and natural history of NF1 and could prove indispensable for development of imaging methods, biomarkers, and evaluation of safety and efficacy of NF1-targeted therapies
Erratum: Corrigendum: KLF4-dependent phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle cells has a key role in atherosclerotic plaque pathogenesis
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Urban Growth Boundaries and their impact on land prices
Undeveloped land transactions at the urban fringe of the Melbourne metropolitan area in Australia are recorded in a dataset that enables exploration of the impact of its urban growth boundary (UGB) on residential land prices. Estimation can take account of a wide range of factors, while controlling for policy anticipation effects and other potential influences on land prices. Modelling estimates indicate that land prices rose substantially inside the UGB after its enactment in 2003, but did not rise much outside of it. These results suggest that the urban growth boundary has had a significant upward effect on the trajectory of the urban region’s house prices.
Keywords: urban growth boundary, land prices, land market dynamic
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Genetically engineered minipigs model the major clinical features of human neurofibromatosis type 1.
Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disease caused by mutations in Neurofibromin 1 (NF1). NF1 patients present with a variety of clinical manifestations and are predisposed to cancer development. Many NF1 animal models have been developed, yet none display the spectrum of disease seen in patients and the translational impact of these models has been limited. We describe a minipig model that exhibits clinical hallmarks of NF1, including café au lait macules, neurofibromas, and optic pathway glioma. Spontaneous loss of heterozygosity is observed in this model, a phenomenon also described in NF1 patients. Oral administration of a mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase inhibitor suppresses Ras signaling. To our knowledge, this model provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the complex biology and natural history of NF1 and could prove indispensable for development of imaging methods, biomarkers, and evaluation of safety and efficacy of NF1-targeted therapies