Health Observances for September: Cancer, Suicide Prevention, and More

September is a busy month for health observances. Following is a partial list with accompanying data from kidsdata.org.

Fruits and Veggies- More Matters Month

• One in three 2- to 4-year-olds in low-income public health programs in California were overweight or obese in 2009.

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

• The percentage of California 5th and 7th graders at a healthy weight (69% for both in 2010) has held fairly steady over the past decade, while the percentage of 9th graders at a healthy weight improved slightly, from 65% in 2002 to 71% in 2010.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

• According to 2002-2006 data, leukemia was the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in CA children ages 0-19, with a rate of 4.9 per 100,000.

• 16 of every 100,000 CA children were diagnosed with cancer, according to 2002-2006 data.

National Infant Mortality Awareness Month

• 5.2 of every 1,000 infants died before their first birthday in CA, according to 2005-2007 data.

National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month

• Data from 2006-2008 show that a higher percentage of CA male vs. female 7^th graders report that they don’t use drugs (64% vs. 52%), but by 11^th grade, the opposite is true: a higher percentage of female vs. male 11^th graders report that they don’t use drugs (71% vs. 67%).

National Suicide Prevention Week

• Overall, youth suicide rates in CA are trending downward. The state’s youth suicide rate in 2005-07 was 6.9 per 100,000 youth ages 15-24, substantially lower than the rate of 9.4 in 1995-97.

Tags: Health Observances

Posted by kidsdata.org

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