MCH-MRN E-News Update: February 2019
Coordinated by CAHMI
Welcome!

This is the February issue of the monthly e-newsletter providing updates and information about the Maternal and Child Health Measurement Research Network (MCH-MRN) . The MCH-MRN is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative network of experts who represent the MCH lifespan and who are active in the measurement of health and well-being of MCH populations.

The MCH-MRN is led by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant UA6MC30375. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.
In this edition of MCH-MRN E-News you will find information about:
  • Finding measures related to your work
  • National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) data
  • Meeting us at AMCHP
  • Engaging in our network!
Got measures? Finding Measures Related to Your Work

The CAHMI’s interactive compendium of MCH measures contains more than 1,000 measures relating to maternal, child, adolescent, and family health from 11 different measure sets . Additional information about each measure, including its title and/or description, numerator, denominator, unit of analysis, specific data source, target population, and key words is included.

The purpose of the compendium is to allow users to quickly browse by measure set, data source category, or  three levels of topical categories. ( Click here to download a sheet illustrating topics and subtopics.)   There are four different pathways which help users quickly browse and narrow their search of over 1000 MCH measures. You can view measures by: 1) measure set, 2) data source category, 3) topical category, or 4) key word.

Through queries in the interactive compendium, anyone can find useful measures for MCH measurement efforts and research projects without recreating the wheel .
For example, typing in key words or choosing topics in the compendium can open a world of measures relating to your work.

  • A key word search using “prenatal” will result in 21 measures, including specific measures for prenatal care utilization, as well as other measures related to pregnancy such as prenatal use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs and measures related to pregnancy health such as diabetes and stress.  
  • A key word search using “medical home” will result in seven measures, including two from Healthy People 2020, two from National Quality Forum, one from the Life Course Indicators Set, one from the new Title V measures set (NPM 11), and one from the old Title V measures set. These measures had varying definitions, levels of specificity, and documentation.
  • Searching on the key word “poverty” will result in five measures, with three distinct measurement approaches.
  •  A topical search on social determinants of health/community and family context will yield 37 measures, most from national, state, or organizational surveys. These range from adverse childhood experiences and child maltreatment to bullying and school safety.
Using the National Survey of Children's Health
The Data Resource Center (DRC), in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has announced the release of the combined 2016-2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) data sets and codebooks through  www.childhealthdata.org .

The combined data sets from two years of the NSCH allow Title V programs and researchers to produce both national and state-level estimates for measures that are not possible with smaller sample sizes from just one year alone. The increased sample size allows for more precise estimates in some cases, as well as estimates of low prevalence measures. Single year 2017 NSCH data findings, downloadable data sets, and codebooks will be available through the DRC in Spring 2019.

For more information and resources on the NSCH, such as fast facts, guides to topics and questions, survey methodology, survey instruments, and more, please visit the  DRC NSCH Overview page . There are also numerous resources available at  HRSA MCHB’s webpage on the NSCH , including the  NSCH Fact Sheet . Public use files for the 2016 NSCH and 2017 NSCH are also available through the   U.S. Census Bureau’s NSCH page .

If your questions are not answered, please contact us at info@cahmi.org . If you are a Title V leader, please be sure to let us know when you contact us. Thank you. 
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Engage with the MCH-MRN
The MCH-MRN provides a platform to: inspire, support, coordinate, and advance efforts related to MCH measurement, promote measurement innovation and shared accountability, and improve outcomes and systems performance on behalf of the nation’s children, youth, and families. 

MCH-MRN members contribute to setting a strategic agenda, collaborate to address MCH measurement gaps and needs, and receive resources and information relevant to MCH measurement.
Find us at AMCHP 2019!

Want to meet the team behind the DRC and learn about CAHMI projects? Come say hi to us in San Antonio.

CAHMI will be attending AMCHP 2019 in San Antonio, Texas from March 9-12. We will be located at Booth #38 on the exhibit floor. Come check out our projects and ask us any questions about the newly released NSCH data. We can't wait to see you!
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The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) is a center within the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.