Health promotion seeks to provide practitioners of medicine and public health as well as members of the public with the information, resources, and tools that they can use to improve health and well-being. This goal is consonant with that of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), namely, to improve public health outcomes via research,…

Purpose: The primary aim of the work reported here is to determine whether a low cost teaching approach which had been successfully used in one region of Tanzania (Tanga) could be introduced to other teachers in a different region by teachers, rather than outside experts. A second aim is to determine whether changes occurred in children's…

In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the promise of peer education as a means of promoting sexual health has contributed to its increasing popularity. While structural and organisational constraints can compromise the success of peer education, many of those involved in modest local programmes in South Africa are able to address the sexual…

The purpose of this article is to assist health educators and students to integrate theory with practice by examining four major learning theories for their implications for motivating healthy behavior change. Using a prototypical case example based on the authors' experiences with farm families through community health screenings, the learning…

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide (American Lung Association, 2002). Statistics show that youth who do smoke report having their first cigarette while in middle school, thus this is a critical opportunity for prevention (Eissenburg & Balster, 2000). This…

This study examined the role of religious orientation and social support in health-promoting behaviors of African American college students. Data were collected from 211 students attending a historically Black university. Results from a 4 x 2 MANOVA revealed significant main effects for both variables. No interaction effects were observed. Post…

This exploratory study examined the influence of residential background and gender on university student drinking patterns. A questionnaire was distributed to 255 kinesiology and physical education students. Rural students (n=104) were more likely than urban students (n=151) to drink at outdoor parties or in vehicles during their first experience…

This study revealed factors associated with reproductive health risk behavior among high school students in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The survey was conducted among high school students from grades 9 through 12 at 2 schools in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. The questions asked inquired about knowledge, attitude, and…

Identifying students at risk for violating alcohol policies could help college administrators minimize many problems. In this study, 154 male college freshmen [mean age 18.01 (SD = 0.50); 63% (n = 54) Caucasian], 68 of whom had been adjudicated for violating alcohol policies, completed an initial questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics…

This study used a community-wide survey of adolescents to compare adolescent perceptions of parental support, knowledge, and authoritative decision making in samples of Hmong and European Americans. Additional analyses considered variation in parental influence on adolescent outcomes across these groups. The results suggested that Hmong American…

Exercise has an important role to play in the prevention of child and adolescent obesity. Recent school-based interventions have struggled to achieve meaningful and lasting changes to exercise levels. Theorists have suggested that this may, in part, be due to the failure to incorporate psychosocial mediators as they relate to behaviour change.…

The assumptions of two social cognition models, the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and the Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1974) are examined in 2 samples of Turkish university students: sexually active and sexually inactive. For sexually inactive participants, perceived benefits of condom use and self-efficacy beliefs regarding condom…

Using a semi-structured survey and convenience sample of pregnant/recently delivered Hispanic (n = 453) and non-Hispanic (n = 904) women in four California counties, this study compared rates of timely prenatal care (PNC) initiation, HIV test counseling, test offering, and test acceptance in PNC between Hispanic and non-Hispanic women. Hispanic…

A sample of 490 high school students from 81 schools in Michigan participated in an experiment in which they were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental Web site. The experimental Web site provided exposure to educational material about the process of organ donation and organ transplantation. The control Web site provided…

This paper describes a health education program entitled "Young Consumer" project, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Cyprus Consumer Association between March and June 2004. The aim of the project was to promote a healthy lifestyle among a group of Cypriot primary school pupils (11-12 years old). Participants were…