For the past six years, the American College Health Association (ACHA) has had two cooperative agreements from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health. Both cooperative agreements focus on the prevention of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) among college students, particularly for…

There is great potential in public health and faith communities partnering to promote health education and research. This article describes lessons learned from the design and implementation of such a partnership, the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program (LAMP). It is feasible, although challenging, to enumerate and survey…

Adolescents face a number of obstacles on the way to adulthood, from time-crunched parents, dangerous substances and behaviors, overburdened schools and a more demanding job market. Consequently, many believe that adolescents should no longer fend for themselves during the non-school hours. Growing public support for more structured activities…

Epidemic levels of obesity represent a growing public health problem associated with a variety of negative health outcomes. Population level interventions that aim to moderate obesigenic environments have been proposed but remain largely unimplemented. Standard individual level interventions that focus on dietary restraint have been ineffective…

Understanding teens' perceptions of the sources of stress and the ways teens cope with the stress in their lives can lead to more appropriate and effective interventions. Shifting the Lens is a multi-phase project that involved the study of stress from the youth perspective and the application of findings in the form of several tools for use by…

Participation in a health promotion program for 192 overweight and obese adults with mental retardation was associated with behavior change resulting in reduction of body mass index--BMI (weight in kg, divided by height in meters, squared) by the end of the program. We analyzed the mediating and intermediate factors contributing to weight…

Enjoyment and mood affection are considered to be main targets of intervention to promote physical activity (PA). Health education based on PA is seeking to explore the factors that affect children to foster and retain healthy habits. This study recognizes that the teaching methodology is crucial and attempts to investigate the effect two…

It is the position of the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the College and University Physical Education Council (CUPEC) that all colleges and universities uphold a physical activity instructional program for students as a strong and integral part of the academic curriculum. Bombarded by popular culture, newfound…

As part of the effort to reduce cigarette smoking--the single most preventable cause of death in the society--researchers have tried for over half a century to identify effective school-based anti-tobacco education that can discourage tobacco use among children and adolescents. Unfortunately, deaf and hard of hearing young people have been largely…

The state of Indiana took a unique approach to developing a statewide plan to improve perinatal health outcomes by engaging parents in a series of focus groups, called Community Conversations in Perinatal Care (CCPC), to hear directly from consumers about their health care experiences and needs. Recognizing that disparities exist among different…

People with profound intellectual disabilities rarely experience a physically active lifestyle, and their long-term physical inactivity likely contributes to poor health. The authors developed and implemented a pilot exercise program for persons with a profound intellectual disability and conducted a study to evaluate the effort. The development…

Latina mothers' perceptions of mental health and factors that promote/restore mental health were explored in this qualitative study. Participants discussed the importance of community, safety, and financial stability in addition to conventional factors that are related to mental health. Implications for working with urban Latinas and their…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current situations of condom using behavior and its related factors among college students in Taiwan. There were two phases in the study. In phase I, 50 students from one college in the eastern, southern, middle and northern parts of Taiwan were selected to form a focus group, and were interviewed…

This paper argues that many internationally financed literacy programs do not sufficiently take into consideration important daily life issues of the learners, including nutritional deficiencies that may hinder learning, or of children-parent-society interactions that may improve learning. As a result, many programs have become synonymous with…

The 20 chapters in this book focus on the creation of environmentally safe and healthy school buildings and grounds and on what school administrators, teachers, maintenance staff, students, community leaders and parents can do to meet this goal. The guide functions as an introduction to environmental problems and issues relevant to schools,…