Celebrate Spring: Promoting Health Observances for March
March is the month that marks the beginning of spring and is a time for celebration as we leave the winter months behind. It offers a wide variety of holidays, awareness days, and special observances that provide great opportunities for libraries to build promotional and educational activities around to kick off the spring season.
While most libraries may gravitate toward promoting St. Patrick’s Day or National Pi Day (who doesn’t like pie?) why not consider promoting one or more of the health awareness days highlighted this month? Health awareness days offer a great chance to provide education and raise awareness about important health issues. Programs and displays can highlight prevention, early detection, the latest research, management of health conditions and where to find reliable information.
Each month, The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion selects National Health Observances (NHOs) that support the mission to improve health across the United States. March observances raise awareness about nutrition, colorectal cancer, and HIV/AIDS among women and girls. Let’s explore the March NHOs and look at some resources you can use for promotion.
National Nutrition Month®
National Nutrition Month was established in 1973 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The purpose of this month-long campaign is to teach people how to make good food choices, develop health eating habits and how to add physical activity to their daily routine. The 2025 theme is “Food Connects Us.” The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has created a website packed with information about this year’s event, resources, multilingual graphics and social media cover photos. Explore this great resource on the their website, 50 Ideas to Get Involved in National Nutrition Month ® for lots of ideas focusing on different places where people can get involved. If you need materials to complement programming, MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s database of health information for consumers has many resources on nutrition. There are healthy recipes, a list of nutrition related health topics, links to other nutrition specific resources as well as videos, images and patient materials. Many of the materials are also available in multiple languages. Nutrition.gov from the U. S. Department of Agriculture is another website that offers reliable information to help people make healthy eating choices. From recipes to nutrition content to nutrition tips for every stage of life, Nutrition.gov is the place to go. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a multiple nutrition education resources and materials for the a variety of audiences including the Health Educator’s Nutrition Toolkit: Setting the Table for Healthy Eating. And finally check out the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) website page on food and nutrition. This site is part of the Reading Club collection and has several resources that would be useful to promote good nutrition, developing sound eating habits, and more. All the above resources can be used to create interesting and informative displays, classes and more to support National Nutrition Month at the library. Check them out!
National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
Use March to get the word out about the importance of regular screenings for colorectal cancer. Regular screening begins at age 45 and studies show that some screening tests for colorectal cancer help find cancer at an early stage and may decrease the number of deaths from the disease.1 National Cancer Institute has great resources specifically written for patients about colorectal cancer to help people learn about prevention, treatment and more. And check out the Centers for Disease Control site Screening for Colorectal Cancer for resources on the basics, symptoms, risk factors and more. Health People 2030, MyHealthfinder, and MedlinePlus all have resources to help build a great awareness campaign to remind people to take part in screenings. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder to get screened and what better place to get the nudge than at the public library.
HIV National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – March 10
The Office on Women’s Health (OWH) in the Department of Health and Human Services takes the lead on promoting National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NWGHAAD) on March 10, 2025. Throughout the month of March organization of all kinds work together to increase awareness about the impact of HIV and AIDS on women and girls and to advocate for those at risk or living with HIV. The 2025 theme is Prevention and Testing at Every Age. Care and Treatment at Every Stage. OWH used this theme in 2024 and continues with it to reemphasize the need to further prevention efforts and ensure those who need HIV care and treatment get it.
The purpose of the awareness day is to:
- To highlight the need for improved HIV prevention, treatment, and care services for women and girls
- To increase access to HIV screening, prevention, and care
- To show support for those at risk of and living with HIV
What can you do on March 10?
- Talk about HIV and AIDS at your library and online using the NWGHAAD toolkit and resources.
- Show your support for women and girls affected by HIV and AIDS on social media and use the hashtag #NWGHAAD.
- Get the latest facts about HIV and Women.
For more information go to MedlinePlus and explore the topic page HIV in Women.
By working together and raising awareness, we can help eliminate HIV and improve the quality of treatment and care for people currently living with HIV.
We hope you’ll consider highlighting one of these health initiatives during the month of March. It’s a great way for libraries to take advantage of the important role they play in the community as a provider of trusted information and health information is no exception!
Reference
1.Gupta S. Screening for Colorectal Cancer. Hematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2022 Jun;36(3):393-414. doi: 10.1016/j.hoc.2022.02.001. Epub 2022 Apr 30. PMID: 35501176; PMCID: PMC9167799.
Resources
Health Observances
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
National Nutrition Month®
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
50 Ideas to Get Involved in National Nutrition Month ®
Health Educator’s Nutrition Toolkit: Setting the Table for Healthy Eating
Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) website page on food and nutrition.
National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
National Cancer Institute – Colon screening
CDC – Screening for Colon Cancer
HIV National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – March 10
Office on Women’s Health (OWH)
National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NWGHAAD) on March 10, 2025.
MedlinePlus – HIV in Women.
