Recently the adoption of mindfulness or contemplative based approaches has escalated across many sectors, including in education. Proponents argue that mindfulness based teaching programs improve students' life skills, provide emotional balance, reduce stress and enhance classroom climate. To date though there is little evaluation or knowledge of…

We examine the impact of serving fruit smoothies during school breakfast on fruit consumption among middle school and high school students. We draw on observational plate-waste data over a 10-week period during which fruit smoothies were introduced for breakfast at two Utah schools. Our total sample includes 2,760 student-day observations. We find…

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…

Background: Fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes, obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Only one third of children aged 4-8?years consume the recommended 5 servings a day. Studies involving school-aged children (6-11?years) demonstrate that positive outcome expectancies can mediate FVC. There…

Objective: Milk and milk products provide important nutrients and have been associated with numerous health benefits in addition to bone health, including a healthy weight and a reduction of risk for certain conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer. Nonetheless, consumption of milk and milk…

This study reports consumer reactions to the graphic health warnings selected by the Food and Drug Administration to be placed on cigarette packs in the United States. We recruited three sets of respondents for an experimental study from a national opt-in e-mail list sample: (i) current smokers aged 25 or older, (ii) young adult smokers aged 18-24…

Despite significant investment in many countries, the extent of schools' adoption of obesity prevention policies and practices has not been widely reported. The aims of this article are to describe Australian schools' adoption of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices over an 8-year period and to determine if their adoption…

Smartphones are used widely by the general public and students. They are one of the most popular and easily accessible technologies. These devices were originally designed as a means of communication. However, they have evolved into a mobile computing platform with built in sensors and the ability to access a vast number of applications. This…

This narrative review describes the available scientific evidence regarding promising school-based strategies to increase physical activity of adolescents. We conducted a literature search for studies published up to 2011, regarding adolescent physical activity intervention studies that resulted in increased physical activity (regardless of…

Purpose: Alcohol stands in an ambiguous relationship to sports, and there is a common belief that participation in sports prevents alcohol consumption. Although this is not always the case, sports clubs can be important settings for health promoting alcohol policy interventions .The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of implementing…

Aim: To explore teenagers experiences of the breastfeeding promotion and support delivered by health professionals. Design: A qualitative study conducted in an English city. Methods: Pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers (n = 29) took part in semi-structured interviews and focus groups between March and July 2009. Results: Breastfeeding is…

Aims: This article reports on an evaluation of a community-controlled peer education project led by a drug user organization (DUO) that aimed to contribute to hepatitis C prevention. This article also examines broader contextual issues, particularly the funding and governance arrangements affecting the conduct of peer education. Method: This…

Diet change toward eating less meat and more plant foods is advocated for reasons of health, environmental protection, and kindness toward non-human animals. This article is written for people who advocate meat reduction, regardless of whether their audiences are in schools, universities, organizations, or in the general public. However, the…

Times are tense for schools. While they want their students to be well prepared for the coming years of the 21st century, there is an almost ceaseless anxiety caused by unrelenting news and data illustrating how children can get hurt--physically or emotionally. Beyond underscoring the challenges of providing physical safety, data also reveal the…

Project DULCE (Developmental understanding and legal Collaboration for everyone) integrated the Strengthening families approach to building family protective factors into routine health care visits for infants in a primary health care setting. The core collaborators--Boston medical Center pediatric primary care, the medical-legal partnership |…