Insights in Public Health: Improving Health for Mothers, Infants, and Families with the Hawai'i Maternal and Infant Health Collaborative.

The Hawai'i Maternal and Infant Health Collaborative, founded in 2013, is a public-private partnership committed to improving birth outcomes and reducing infant mortality. The Collaborative was developed in partnership with the Executive Office on Early Learning Action Strategy with help from the Department of Health and National Governor's Association. The Action Strategy provides Hawai'i with a roadmap for an integrated and comprehensive early childhood system, spanning preconception to third grade. The Collaborative helps advance goals within the Action Strategy by focusing on ensuring that children have the best start in life by being healthy and welcomed. The Collaborative has completed a strategic plan and accompanying Logic Model, The First 1,000 Days, aimed at achieving the outcomes of 8% reduction in preterm births and 4% reduction in infant mortality. To date over 120 people across Hawai'i have been involved in the Collaborative. These members include physicians and clinicians, public health planners and providers, insurance providers and health care administrators. The work is divided into three primary areas and coordinated by a cross sector leadership team. Work is specific, outcome driven, informed by data and primarily accomplished in small work groups.

Association of academic performance of premedical students to satisfaction and engagement in a short training program: a cross sectional study presenting gender differences.

BACKGROUND: It is important that students have a high academic engagement and satisfaction in order to have good academic achievement. No study measures association of these elements in a short training program. This study aimed to measure the correlation between academic achievement, satisfaction and engagement dimensions in a short training program among premedical students. METHODS: We carried out a cross sectional study, in August 2013, at Cercle d'Etudiants, Ingénieurs, Médecins et Professeurs de Lycée pour le Triomphe de l'Excellence (CEMPLEX) training center, a center which prepares students for the national common entrance examination into medical schools in Cameroon. We included all students attending this training center during last examination period. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire on paper. Academic engagement was measured using three dimensions: vigor, dedication and absorption. Satisfaction to lessons, for each learning subject was collected. Academic achievement was calculated using mean of the score of all learning subjects affected with their coefficient. Pearson coefficient (r) and multiple regression models were used to measure association. A p value < 0.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS: In total, 180 students were analyzed. In univariate linear analysis, we found correlation with academic achievement for vigor (r = 0.338, p = 0.006) and dedication (r = 0.287, p = 0.021) only in male students. In multiple regression linear analysis, academic engagement and satisfaction were correlated to academic achievement only in male students (R2 = 0.159, p = 0.035). No correlation was found in female students and in all students. The independent variables (vigor, dedication, absorption and satisfaction) explained 6.8-24.3% of the variance of academic achievement. CONCLUSION: It is only in male students that academic engagement and satisfaction to lessons are correlated to academic achievement in this short training program for premedical students and this correlation is weak.