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Family Health

Family Health

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Helping families be safer, healthier, and stronger

In the Spotlight

Camping Health and Safety Tips and Packing Checklist
Follow these tips and use the packing checklist to ensure your camping trip is safe and healthy.

Healthy Living Calendars
View illustrated calendars and tips for a safe and healthy year.

Healthy Families

Traveling with Pets and Importation of Animals into the United States
CDC regulations govern the importation of dogs, cats, turtles, monkeys, other animals, and animal products capable of causing human disease. Requirements for the most common pets are described below. Pets taken out of the United States are subject upon return, to the same regulations as those entering for the first time.

Catch-up Immunization Scheduler for Children Six Years of Age and Younger
This tool, once downloaded, can be used to determine the vaccines your child needs and to quickly see missed or skipped vaccines according to the Immunization Schedule.

Stay Afloat in Your Boat Podcast
In the United States, approximately 700 boating deaths occur each year. Dr. Eric Tongren discusses mistakes and oversights that put persons at risk.

Chillin’ and Grillin’
Whether you bite into thick juicy burgers and hot dogs hot from the grill, pack a picnic for the park, or dine on dilled salmon on the patio, chances are you'll want to enjoy cooking and eating outside all summer long. Make the most of the fun by making sure your food remains safe.

Promoting Water Safety
Learn what you can do to prevent water-related injuries in a swimming pool or in or around a natural body of water.
Podcast also available.

Be Prepared for Hurricane Season
Stock your home with supplies, get an emergency kit for your car, know how to stay safe during the storm, and know what to do if evacuation orders are issued. Podcast also available.

Snuff Out Smoking
Smoke is dangerous whether you inhale it from a cigarette or breathe it from the air where others around you are smoking. Dr. Matthew McKenna discusses the effects of secondhand smoke and how it can be avoided. Podcast also available.

Fireworks Safety
The safest way to prevent firework-related injuries is to leave firework displays to trained professionals.

Healthy Communities

Talk About Nitpicking! Summer Camp and Head Lice Podcast
Head lice are a fairly common problem, especially in preschool and elementary school children. This podcast will help you understand how people get head lice and how to get rid of them!

Parks and Trails
Enjoy an active summer in our nation’s beautiful parks and trails. Being active outdoors is beneficial for your physical and mental health. Adults are encouraged to get at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity most days of the week, and children are encouraged to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week, preferably daily.

Community Health Resources
Are you looking for CDC's best resources to help you plan, implement, and evaluate community health initiatives? Search this website for links to hundreds of useful tools, handbooks, fact sheets, and other information.

The Community Health Promotion Handbook Action Guides to Improve Community Health
CDC's Steps Program and Partnership for Prevention have developed guidance ("Action Guides") on five effective community-level health promotion strategies relating to diabetes self-management, physical activity, and tobacco-use treatment.

Choose Respect Community Action Kit
This kit contains information on dating abuse; healthy versus unhealthy relationships; relationship skills; and how kids, parents, educators, schools, and others in the community can help prevent dating abuse.

The Reference Guide of Physical Activity Programs for Older Adults: A Resource for Planning Interventions
This guide provides information on 17 physical activity programs that could be used with older adults having healthy to frail functional status. All of the programs contain physical activity components that might achieve important benefits for all older adults with diabetes. A limited number of the programs were designed specifically for those with diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Science and Research

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance- United States, 2007 (6/23/08)
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System monitors six categories of health behaviors among students in grades 9-12, including behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV infection; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. Find out what has changed and how girls compare to boys.

New CDC Study First to Present National Outdoor Recreational Injury Estimates (6/23/08)
Almost 213,000 people were treated each year in emergency departments for outdoor recreational injuries from 2004 to 2005. For both men and women of all ages, the most common injuries were fractures (27.4 percent) and sprains (23.9 percent). Researchers found that snowboarding (25.5 percent), sledding (10.8 percent), and hiking (6.3 percent) were associated with the highest percentage of injuries requiring emergency department visits.

CDC Recommends Shingles Vaccine (6/23/08)
People age 60 and older should be vaccinated against shingles, or herpes zoster, a condition often marked by debilitating chronic pain. CDC recommends a single dose of the zoster vaccine, Zostavax, for adults 60 years of age and older even if they have had a prior episode of shingles.

Decision Not to Recommend Routine Vaccination of All Children Aged 2-10 Years with Quadrivalent Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine (6/23/08)
At its February 2008 meeting, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) decided not to recommend routine vaccination of children aged 2-10 years against meningococcal disease unless the child is at increased risk for the disease. This report summarizes the deliberations of ACIP and the rationale for its decision. It also restates existing recommendations for meningococcal vaccination among children aged 2-10 years at increased risk for meningococcal disease.

State Smoking Restrictions for Private-Sector Worksites, Restaurants, and Bars- United States, 2004 and 2007 (6/23/08)
The findings in this report indicate that a substantial increase in the number and restrictiveness of state laws regulating smoking in these three settings, providing nonsmokers with increased protection from the health risks posed by secondhand smoke.

Health Disparities among Adults with Hearing Loss- United States, 2000-2006 (6/23/08)
During the period 2000-2006, 3.3% of U.S. adults aged 18 years and over were deaf or had a lot of trouble hearing without the use of a hearing aid. Deafness or a lot of trouble hearing increased dramatically with age. Among adults aged 18-44 years, more than 40% of those who were deaf or had a lot of trouble hearing currently smoked cigarettes compared with 24% of those with good hearing.

Congressional Testimony: Preventing Childhood Injuries (6/23/08)
At CDC, we work to ensure that all people achieve their optimal lifespan with the best possible quality of health at every stage of life. We are equally motivated to ensure that individuals get a healthy start in life, and nowhere is this more important than in the lives of children.

Awareness of Stroke Warning Symptoms- 13 States and the District of Columbia, 2005 (6/23/08)
The results indicated that the percentages of respondents who recognized all five correct stroke warning symptoms, identified an incorrect symptom, and recognized the need to telephone 9-1-1 was low; the percentage who met all three measures was 16.4%.

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Content Source: CDC Office of Women's Health
Page last modified: July 23, 2008
Page last reviewed: June 23, 2008