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.
Highlights
- NICHD News on Prevention Research
- NICHD Accomplishments (including prevention-related activities)
- 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.