In Washington, D.C., the vast majority of children have health insurance. Yet District children often lack sufficient access to medical care and face significant health threats from chronic conditions and risk factors such as exposure to violence in schools and neighborhoods. These findings emerged from an assessment of children's health in…

The concept of the "food desert", an area with limited access to retail food stores, has increasingly been used within social scientific and public health research to explore the dimensions of spatial inequality and community well-being. While research has demonstrated that food deserts are frequently characterized by higher levels of…

More than 1,700 students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related causes, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). These students succumb to alcohol poisoning, cardiac arrest, or injuries from falls off dorm room balconies or other heights on campus. The problem of binge drinking, defined…

Objective: Public health messaging about physical activity (PA) sometimes combines moderate and vigorous intensity, but the variance/invariance of the motives for PA by intensity has received scant attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and motivations associated with regular moderate- and vigorous-intensity PA in a…

Adolescents of low socio-economic position (SEP) are less likely than those of higher SEP to consume diets in line with current dietary recommendations. The reasons for these SEP variations remain poorly understood. We investigated the mechanisms underlying socio-economic variations in adolescents' eating behaviours using a theoretically derived…

Purpose: This study describes the perceptions of brain health among older Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans who reside in colonia areas of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Design and Methods: In 2007, 33 Mexican American older adults (9 men and 24 women) were recruited by "promotoras" (community health workers) from clusters of…

The interest in competencies, standards, and quality assurance in the professional preparation of public health professionals whose work involves health promotion and health education dates back several decades. In Australia, Europe, and North America, where the interest in credentialing has gained momentum, there have been rapidly evolving…

The internal consistency and validity of the interRAI Community Health Assessment and Deafblind Supplement were tested with 182 persons with deaf-blindness. All subscales demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency, and expected associations provided evidence of convergent validity. This instrument can facilitate standardized service…

Purpose: Prostate and colorectal cancer (CRC) rates are disproportionately high among African-American men. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an intervention in which barbers were trained to educate clients about early detection for prostate and CRC. Design/methodology/approach: Working with an advisory panel of local…

Problematic internet use (PIU) during the college life becomes a significant public health concern with a variety of negative outcomes. The aim of the present study was to examine the incidence of generalized PIU (GPIU) and its relationship to stressful life events and coping style among Chinese college students. Six hundred and fifty-four college…

Context: Diabetes care is challenging in rural areas. Research has shown that the utilization of electronic patient registries improves care; however, improvements generally have been described in combination with other ongoing interventions. The level of basic registry utilization sufficient for positive change is unknown. Purpose: The goal of…

Previous research has shown a strong connection between birth weight and future child outcomes. But this research has not asked how insults to child health after birth affect long-term outcomes, whether health at birth matters primarily because it predicts future health or through some other mechanism, or whether health insults matter more at some…

In the United States, an estimated 55 million students are enrolled in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Another 15 million students attend colleges and universities across the country. While U.S. schools remain relatively safe, any amount of violence is unacceptable. Parents, teachers, and administrators expect schools to be safe havens of…

To examine modelling of outcomes relevant to sun protection in Australian women's magazines, content analysis was performed on 538 spring and summer issues of popular women's magazines from 1987 to 2005. A total of 4949 full-colour images of Caucasian females were coded for depth of tan, extent of clothing cover, use of shade and setting. Logistic…

We report on interviews conducted with participants in a novel study about environmental chemicals in body fluids and household air and dust. Interviews reveal how personal and collective environmental history influence the interpretation of exposure data, and how participants fashion an emergent understanding of environmental health problems from…