Public health campaigns have the potential to correct vaping misperceptions. However, campaigns highlighting vaping harms to youth may increase misperceptions that vaping is equally/more harmful than smoking. Vaping campaigns have been implemented in the United States and Canada since 2018 and in England since 2017 but with differing focus: youth…

Background: Religious institutions play a crucial role in health promotion and hold significant influence in the public health field. Aim: The aim of this review is to examine outcomes of health-promoting interventions involving the use of mosques as the intervention venue, its role in promoting health behavior change, and the role of theory in…

This study aims to describe Facebook users' beliefs toward physical distancing measures implemented during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic using the key constructs of the health belief model. A combination of rule-based filtering and manual classification methods was used to classify user comments on COVID-19 Facebook posts of three…

Prescription opioid (POs, i.e. opioid analgesics requiring a prescription) related harms are extensive in North America; non-medical PO use (NMPOU), PO-related morbidity (e.g. hospital or treatment admissions) and mortality (e.g. overdose deaths) are high in the general population. Most recommendations towards reducing PO-related problems to date…

Chronic diseases are the primary health burden among Mexican-origin populations and health promotion efforts have not been able to change negative population trends. This research presents behavioral and subjective health impacts of two related community health worker (CHW) interventions conducted in the US-Mexico border region. "Pasos…

Extension programming that incorporates both physical activity and dietary behaviors is necessary for the prevention of certain chronic diseases, including obesity. The purpose of the study presented here was to systematically identify the presence of physical activity objectives in the strategic plan for each Extension system in the United…

The health literacy movement has been socially constructed over time. Unlike the consumer health information movement, which developed with broad public support, the health literacy movement has been fashioned primarily from the top down, initiated by policy makers and imposed on targeted populations. Interest in the health literacy movement has…

Obesity among children and teens continues to be a major public health concern in the United States. Approximately 16.9% of children and adolescents age 2-19 years are obese. To address this epidemic, schools have been encouraged to develop a coordinated school health program, which includes an interdisciplinary approach to nutrition education.…

Research in the United States and Australia acknowledges the potential of non-government social and community service organizations (SCSOs) for reaching socially disadvantaged smokers. This study aimed to describe SCSO smoking policies and practices, and attitudes of senior staff towards smoking and cessation. It also investigated factors…

Intervention and policy approaches targeting the societal factors that affect health literacy (e.g., educational systems) could have promise to improve health outcomes, but little research has investigated these factors. This study examined the associations between self-reported racial composition of prior educational and neighborhood contexts and…

Recent discussions about the conduct of community interventions suggest the importance of developing more comprehensive theorizing about their nature and effects. The present study is an effort to infer how community interventions are theorized by the way they are represented in the peer-reviewed scholarly literature. A coding of a random sample…

The purpose of this paper is to outline why physical activity policy is important in terms of promoting population based increases in physical activity. The promotion of physical activity through public policy happens globally and nationally, however to be successful it should also happen at state and local levels. We outline the rationale for the…

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) annually publishes an immunization schedule for persons aged 0 through 18 years that summarizes recommendations for currently licensed vaccines for children aged 18 years and younger and includes recommendations in effect as of December 15, 2009. The changes to the previous schedule are…

Newborn screening is a test done on every child born in the US shortly after birth to detect diseases where, if not diagnosed and treated in the newborn period, the child will suffer significant trauma, disability or die. A few drops of blood from each baby's heel is put on a card and sent to the state's public health lab for testing. Most states…

Sustained mass media campaigns have been recommended to stem the tobacco epidemic in the United States. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to estimate the effect of awareness of a national smoking cessation media campaign (EX[R]) on quit attempts and cessation-related cognition. Participants were 4,067 smokers and recent quitters aged 18-49…