Background: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHKA) required schools to make changes to meals provided to children. Rural school districts have limited resources, with increased obesity rates and local food insecurity. In this study we sought to understand the perceptions of rural food service directors and the barriers to implementing…

In this paper, we offer a critical examination of Let's Move!, the comprehensive anti-obesity program initiated by the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, that aims to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. We argue that Let's Move! is not just a campaign against obesity but is emblematic of the nature of (and…

President Biden is committed to seeking and providing the necessary resources to support the safe operation of institutions of higher education (IHEs) and addressing the ongoing impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education students, adult education students, faculty, and staff. In Volume 3 of this Handbook, a series to support…

Advanced practitioner skill development has become an important focus in health service delivery as increasingly complex consumer needs, practice environments and national professional registration requirements impact on professional work practices. Increasingly, work-based or workplace learning experiences are being seen as an effective means for…

Sexual health text message services are becoming an increasingly popular way to reach young people with sexual health information. A variety of service types exist: some send automated messages on a set schedule; others provide personalized responses to individual questions. Young people's perceptions of interactivity, which is often based on…

Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service provided elementary school students with a program that included a noncompetitive physical activity component: circuit training that combined cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility activities without requiring high skill levels. The intent was to improve fitness without focusing on body mass index as an…

Policy scoping reviews are an effective method for generating evidence-informed policies. However, when applying guiding methodological frameworks to complex policy evidence, numerous, unexpected challenges can emerge. This paper details five challenges experienced and addressed by a policy trainee-led, multi-disciplinary research team, while…

By promoting physical activities and incorporating them into their community-based programs, Extension professionals are improving the health of individuals, particularly those with limited resources. This article is the second in a three-part series describing the benefits of physical activity for human health: (1) biological health benefits of…

Despite the known dangers of pregnancy smoking, rates remain high, especially in the rural, Southern United States. Interventions are effective, but few have been developed and tested in regions with high rates of pregnancy smoking, a culture that normalizes smoking, and a hard-to-reach prenatal population. The goals were to describe a smoking…

Spreading and sustaining evidence-informed practice in child welfare is complex. In particular, putting in place an active dissemination strategy requires the recognition of these unique challenges. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how collaborative partnerships between individuals and organizations may represent an opportunity for more…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Walk Your Heart to Health" ("WYHH") intervention, one component of the multilevel Community Approaches to Cardiovascular Health: Pathways to Heart Health (CATCH:PATH) intervention designed to promote physical activity and reduce cardiovascular risk…

Even though evidence-based Tier 2 programs are now more commonly available, integrating and sustaining these interventions in schools remain challenging. RE-AIM, which stands for Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance, is a public health framework used to maximize the effectiveness of health promotion programs in…

The few existing economic evaluations of community-based health promotion interventions were reported retrospectively at the end of the trial. We report an evaluation of the costs of the Kin Keeper(superscript SM) Cancer Prevention Intervention, a female family-focused educational intervention for underserved women applied to increase breast and…

Little is known about the effective dose of motivational interviewing for maintaining intervention-induced health outcome improvements. The purpose of this study was to compare effects of two doses of motivational interviewing for maintaining blood pressure improvements in a community-engaged lifestyle intervention conducted with…

Well-known disparities exist in rates of obesity and drowning, two public health priorities. Addressing these disparities by increasing access to safe swimming and water recreation may yield benefits for both obesity and injury prevention. "Everyone Swims," a community partnership, brought community health clinics and water recreation…