March Health Observances

Health observances help raise awareness and promote prevention

Mar 1, 2007 Kathy Quan

Each month health observances help to raise the public's awareness of health issues and the need for cures and prevention.

March is a big month for national health observances in the U.S.. Raising awareness for the prevention of diseases and working to find cures is the main purpose of such observances. Some of these observances are for the entire month, and others are for set days or weeks.

The month long observances for March include:

  • National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
  • National Kidney Month
  • National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month
  • National Nutrition Month
  • Save Your Vision Month
  • Workplace Eye Health and Safety Month

Other health observances taking place during the month of March include:

  • National Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 4-10
  • National School Breakfast Week, March 5-9
  • MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Awareness Week, March 5-11
  • Brain Awareness Week, March 12-18
  • National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week, March 18-24
  • American Diabetes Alert Day, March 27

For more information on these and other health awareness observances throughout the year, you can log on to the healthfinder.gov website. They have links to all of the health observances. In addition, healthfinder.gov has several different alert options to remind you about upcoming observances. These include daily and weekly email alerts, RSS feeds and newsletters. Healthfinder.gov is a free website sponsored by the U.S Dept. of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the website is to provide reliable health information to the public.

Health observances are sponsored by organizations that conduct fund raisers and provide health education and relaible information about specific diseases and groups of related diseases. Some of these organizations also provide assistance and support groups for persons, friends and family members of those suffering from these diseases. Their fund raising efforts are primarily to support research for cures and preventative measures and health education purposes.

Raising awareness of diseases helps to remind people to have annual screenings such as mammograms, pap smears, colonoscopies, and blood tests for things such as cholesterol, blood glucose, and PSA (prostate specific antigen.) These tests and screenings can help to identify risk factors for diseases and to identify disease at an early stage to improve chances for adequate control or curative measures.

Information is Key

Support groups and education provided by these organizations helps to assist patients and their loved ones and caregivers in providing emotional support and assistance in finding appropriate treatments and possible cures. This information is also quite helpful in educating family members in the genetic risk factors and preventative measures.

Take Care of You

Taking responsibility for ones own health status, wellness and positive patient outcomes involves understanding risk factors, preventative measures and finding and following appropriate treatments.

Copyright 2007 Kathy Quan RN All rights reserved

The copyright of the article March Health Observances in Health Field is owned by Kathy Quan . Permission to republish March Health Observances in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.