Existing research on the risks of having sex at a young age with an older partner has focused on poorer reproductive health outcomes in the adolescent years, but scant attention has been paid to the longer-term implications of these relationships. Using survey data from high school students, this "Fact Sheet" presents findings from recent Child…

The prevalence of overweight in Mexican American children has been increasing at a steady rate over the past few years. People of Mexican origin make up the largest proportion of the Hispanic population, which has been reported by the U.S. Census Bureau to be the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. The purpose of this integrative…

An environmental factor of particular importance to children's physical activity levels appears to be the presence of parks and open space. Thus, in promoting children's health, school grounds merit consideration as a potential setting for intervention. This paper explores how "green" school grounds, which contain a greater diversity of…

Background: India made 2 important policy statements regarding tobacco control in the past decade. First, the India Tobacco Control Act (ITCA) was signed into law in 2003 with the goal to reduce tobacco consumption and protect citizens from exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS). Second, in 2005, India ratified the World Health Organization Framework…

Many controversies surround sex education in the United States. One particular issue of contention is whether comprehensive sexuality education increases frequency of sexual intercourse among program participants. The current investigation examined frequency of vaginal sexual intercourse in a sample of 522 sexually experienced African-American…

Using a cross-sectional design of 400 primary care patients with diabetes, the authors evaluated demographics, health status, subjective health and mental health, health behaviors, health beliefs, knowledge of diabetes treatment, satisfaction with medical care, and quality of medical care as potential predictors of QoL and QoL in the hypothetical…

Objectives: To estimate how many heterosexual and gay/bisexual men self-define abusive childhood sexual experiences (CSEs) to be childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and to assess whether CSA self-definition is associated with risky behavioral and psychiatric outcomes in adulthood. Methods: In Philadelphia County, 197 (66%) of 298 recruited men…

Data were obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the longitudinal association between Asian and Pacific Islander (API) adolescents' perceptions of maternal approval of their sexual activity and contraception use, and four sexual outcomes during young adulthood. The study includes a nationally representative…

One fifth of Americans smoke; many have no plans to quit. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an effective approach to intervention with precontemplative smokers, yet a substantial number of healthcare practitioners lack training in this approach. Two interactive online tutorials were developed to teach practitioners to deliver brief tobacco…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in smoking prevalence among adolescents and young adults in the UK and to identify any developments in health education theory and practice relating to adolescent tobacco use since 2000. The implications of such research are discussed. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search was…

The purpose of the study is to examine factors associated with risky sexual behaviors among secondary school adolescents in Ogun State, Nigeria. Two hundred and fifty adolescents randomly selected from three schools participated in the study. The ages of the participants ranged from 13 to 18 years. Both the independent and dependent variables were…

Low socio-economic status (SES) has been associated with lower cervical screening rates. Mass media is one known strategy that can increase cervical screening participation. This study sought to determine whether a mass media campaign conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 2005 was effective in encouraging women across all SES groups to screen. Data…

The cross-sectional study investigated South African rural high school learners' choice of sexual abstinence in order to be able to develop tailored health education messages. All Grade 9 learners from one class at each of 10 randomly selected rural high schools participated. The Integrated Model for Motivational and Behavioural Change was used to…

This study examined the priority health behaviors of South African youth by administering a questionnaire to 635 undergraduate students enrolled in a large metropolitan university in South Africa. Results indicate that 65.5% of the participants tried cigarettes at least once during their lifetime, over 15.2% had their first cigarette and 31.2% had…

Musical parodies of contemporary songs with their lyrics altered to address current food safety issues were incorporated into a variety of food safety educational programs and the effectiveness of the music was evaluated by semiquantitative and qualitative measures. Audiences receiving the music-enriched curricula included school foodservice…