This issue of Family & Community Health is one of our more international issues. Authors come from the United States, Malaysia, Canada, Lebanon, and Turkey. As you will see when you read the articles, the health problems are much the same around the world. Most countries would benefit from more health education and health promotion, and diet and exercise are concerns for most people. Like most issues of Family & Community Health, this issue reflects the writings of educators and practitioners from many disciplines and from a range of academic and practice settings. These factors influence the richness of the articles each of which is aimed toward improving health.
Recently the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named 10 noteworthy public health achievements during the last 10 years. Many of these achievements correlate with the goals and objectives of the Healthy People work, which began in 1979 and has served as a compass for setting forth goals and priorities related to prevention and better health. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention achievements include (1) the introduction of new vaccines for vaccine-preventable diseases with the 2 most significant being those for pneumococcal infections and rotavirus hospitalizations; (2) the prevention and control of infectious diseases including tuberculosis, central-line-associated bloodstream infections and in the reduced spread of foodborne illnesses; (3) tobacco control as a result of the number of states growing from 0 in 2000 to 25 in 2010 with comprehensive smoke-free laws and the increased tax on cigarettes, which significantly raised their cost; (4) because of the increased addition of folic acid to cereal grain products, there has been a 36% decrease in neural tube defects; (5) motor vehicle safety has improved as evidenced by decreases in deaths and injury related to automobile and bicycle riding and to pedestrians; (6) decreases in heart disease and stroke primarily because of lower smoking rates and improvements in treatment for hypertension and high cholesterol; (7) workplace injuries have declined including back injuries among health care workers; (8) improved screening techniques and adherence to screening have led to reduced deaths from colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer; (9) because of more states adopting comprehensive lead poisoning laws, fewer children have elevated levels of lead in their blood; and lastly (10) the public health system has greatly improved its public health preparedness and response systems.1
Even with these major accomplishments, we are still faced with many chronic health problems that are due to lifestyle choices. The articles in this issue discuss important topics related to the growing problems of childhood obesity and diabetes, and the need for health education and health promotion to help people learn more about taking care of their greatest resource: their health. Other articles discuss issues related to caring for family members with a mental illness, the use of nonmedical remedies for children with mental health problems, coping with displacements in one's country, and using a youth-led program for understanding the relationship of driving while under the influence of marijuana. I hope that you will find each of the articles interesting and informative.
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