Prevention is an important focus of the research NICHD conducts and supports.
Prevention includes multiple aspects1 including:
- Primary Prevention: Intervening before health effects occur. These interventions, like vaccines, may keep a condition, disease, or disability from occurring at all.
- Secondary Prevention: Screening to identify a disease or condition as early as possible, usually before symptoms have started. These early interventions, such as those that result from newborn screening, may prevent the condition from affecting health or may minimize health effects and symptoms.
- Tertiary Prevention: Managing health after diagnosis. These interventions, such as rehabilitation and medication, may prevent or reduce the severity of poor health outcomes and may improve long-term health.
Within this context, NICHD’s prevention-related efforts cover a range of topics, such as preterm labor and birth, mother-to-child-transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases, pediatric obesity, rehabilitation through physical activity and exercise, pregnancy loss, and newborn screening.
- Office of Disease Prevention, NIH
Assesses, facilitates, and stimulates research in disease prevention across NIH and disseminates results to improve public health - National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR)
Aims to accelerate progress in preventing and reducing childhood obesity in the United States; includes NICHD as a member - Pregnancy for Every Body, NICHD
Aims to help pregnant women and their providers work toward the ultimate goals of healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, and healthy babies - Prevention Research Centers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Network of 26 centers that work to identify public health problems and to develop, test, and evaluate public health interventions that can be applied widely in underserved communities - Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, HHS
Sets national health goals and objectives and support programs, services, and activities—such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Healthy People 2020—that aim to improve the health of all Americans - U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Independent volunteer group of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services - Community Preventive Services Task Force Findings
Provides evidence-based findings and recommendations about community preventive services, program, and other interventions aimed at improving population health
Highlights
- NICHD News on Prevention Research
- NICHD Accomplishments (including prevention-related activities)
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Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice : NICHD's Child Development and Behavior Branch co-sponsored this stakeholder workshop at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A report, toolkit, and public service announcement-style video are available.
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Disability and Pregnancy: Research from NIDILRR and NICHD (PDF 279 KB)
This brief summarizes findings from research funded by NICHD and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) about reproductive education, experiences, and outcomes among women with long-term disability.
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