Preventive Strategies in Pediatric Public Health: From Vaccination Programs to Childhood Obesity Prevention

Abstract

Vaccinations against infectious diseases offer an effective preventive strategy to support pediatric public health. Despite recent challenges for vaccination programs, they continue their contribution to improving public health. In addition to the vaccinations, new preventive strategies targeting public health issues such as poverty and obesity in childhood can lead to the reduction of the spread of infectious and non-transmissible diseases in later life. Preventive strategies such as setting up daycare centers, decreasing the number of children per woman, and increasing paid parental leave could prevent childhood obesity and its complications, leading to substantial savings for society. To mitigate pediatric public health problems, new preventive strategies to reduce infections and diseases in children must be developed. The hygiene hypothesis and the developmental origins of health and disease provide concordant concepts of the early-life strategies needed to be developed. Various health initiatives are interlinked and can be seen as parts of a continuum from the reduction in infections to the prevention of neurological diseases such as ADHD, autism, and non-communicable diseases including childhood leukemia. Given this complex and encompassing range of preventive strategies that can impact pediatric public health, the topic is wide open for discussion and debate. In summary, effective prevention by vaccines can control the adverse consequences of HPV and provide benefits through herd immunity against all sexually transmitted infections in men and women. The off-target benefits provided through increased herd immunity have always decreased the economic burden of disease caused by the targeted pathogen.