The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) is pleased to announce an upcoming DataSpeak on the life course approach to maternal and child health. According to MCHB, the life course approach “looks at health as an integrated continuum and suggests that a complex interplay of biological, behavioral, psychological, social, and environmental factors contribute to health outcomes across the course of a person's life.” (The MCH Life Course Resource Guide) Over the past several years the idea of the life course approach has made inroads in the maternal and child health community. Researchers are now taking the theory to practice and exploring practical applications of this approach. This DataSpeak will feature three ways in which researchers and practitioners are using data and the life course approach.

Presentations will be made by:

• Cheri Pies, MSW, DrPH, from the University of California’s Berkeley School of Public Health will provide an overview of the Best Babies Zone Initiative, a national multi-sector, multi-site project being funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  The BBZ Initiative is a zonal approach, focused on forming a broad collaborative to work in four domains—economic, education, community environment and health—to create a broad based public health social movement to improve birth outcomes, children's health and community health outcomes overall.
  
  
• Whitney P. Witt, PhD, MPH, from the University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, will examine the practical application of the life course theory to maternal and child health research.  Dr. Witt will draw upon several examples of how the life course approach has been used to answer research questions using large datasets.
  
  
• William Sappenfield, PhD, of the University of South Florida, and
  Caroline Stampfel, MPH, of the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP), will speak on the progress of the currently underway AMCHP Life Course Metrics Project. The purpose of this project is to identify a set of indicators that can be used to measure progress using the life course approach. AMCHP is working with state teams to develop these metrics, which will be made available for public comment in spring of 2013.