Smoking during pregnancy is a persistent public health problem that has been linked to later adverse outcomes. The neonatal period--the first month of life--carries substantial developmental change in regulatory skills and is the period when tobacco metabolites are cleared physiologically. Studies to date mostly have used cross-sectional designs…

As a yearlong exploration of air quality and its relation to respiratory health, the "Air Toxics Under the Big Sky" program offers opportunities for students to learn and apply science process skills through self-designed inquiry-based research projects conducted within their communities. The program follows a systematic scope and sequence…

Objective: To develop a retail grocery instrument with weighted scoring to be used as an indicator of the food environment. Participants/Setting: Twenty six retail food stores in low-income areas in California. Intervention: Observational. Main Outcome Measure(s): Inter-rater reliability for grocery store survey instrument. Description of store…

Purpose: We examined the potential association between African couples' concordance on attitudes toward violence (ATV) and risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: Analyses included 13,837 couples from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2003 and 2007, from six African countries. Concordance on ATV was defined as both spouses…

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a framework for describing behaviors by viewing them from three broad and different perspectives: (1) physiologic, physical, and psychological functions; (2) a person's engagement in functional life activities; and (3) their participation in social settings. The…

Falls are a major public health problem for older adults, and community-based organizations play a key role in educating seniors about falls prevention (FP). We conducted a qualitative process evaluation at six sites to report community-based centers' perspectives on adoption, adaptation, and sustainability of an evidence-based multifactorial FP…

Asthma has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, affecting millions of people of all ages and races. An average of one out of every 10 school-age children now has asthma, and the percentage of children with asthma is rising more rapidly in preschool-age children than in any other age group. Asthma is a leading cause of school…

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic chemicals that were manufactured in the United States between about 1930 and 1977 for use in various industrial and commercial applications because of their nonflammability, chemical stability, high boiling point, and electrical insulation properties (ATSDR, 2000). PCBs were used in numerous products…

Youth constitute an important section of our society. They are the biggest reservoir of human resources and are the future of our country. Their development has direct affect on the development of the nation. Street Theatre is not a moment's act. It is a participatory approach which deals with fictional narratives and thus used for communicating…

Empirical evidence of the effects of performance-based public management is scarce. This report describes a framework used to organize available empirical information on one form of performance-based management, a performance-based accountability system (PBAS). Such a system identifies individuals or organizations that must change their behavior…

The effectiveness of an intervention depends on its dose and on moderators of dose, which usually are not studied. The purpose of the study is to determine whether goal setting and theory-based moderators of goal setting had dose relations with increases in goal-related physical activity during a successful workplace intervention. A…

Higher education is an influential sector with enormous potential to impact positively on health and sustainability. The purpose of this paper was to explore its emergent role as a key setting for promoting health and sustainability and for addressing their challenges in an integrated and coherent way. Acknowledging both the relative narrowness of…

Objective: With growing concerns to establish the value for returns on public health investment, there is a need to identify cost-effective physical activity interventions. This study measured change in moderate physical activity (MPA) in seven community-based intervention types, costs and cost-effectiveness of the interventions, and possible…

Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitudes of health care providers, health educators, and social service providers before and after a training session on emergency contraceptive pills. Design: A survey study using pre-post training measurements. Setting: Two hundred and twenty-three medical, social service, and health education providers in…

Empirically supported school-based programs have been shown to reduce the present and future risk for various emotional disturbances. Unfortunately, few of these programs have been successfully transported or maintained outside the context of controlled research studies. Central to attaining this goal is the pressing need to train the next…