Body dissatisfaction (BD) is a common experience among preadolescent girls and a robust risk factor and precursor to eating pathology (EP). Although the relationship between BD and EP has been well documented, there is less research exploring the factors that may make this relationship more or less pronounced. In the current study, we investigated…

Objective: This study compared physical activity (PA), physical function and quality of life in elderly individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD) and their non-CAD peers participating in community-based, maintenance cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Community-based maintenance CR programme. Methods: A total…

Fears of an 'obesity epidemic' in New Zealand and elsewhere have led to a growing focus on children's weight, diet and activities. The aim of this research project was to highlight children's voices, stepping back from obesity interventions to explore how health and obesity discourses are taken up by young primary school children. Nine 6 and…

Background: While dietary sources of calcium are important for bone health, the intake of milk and milk products decreases as children get older. A free milk in schools program may mitigate this decrease in milk consumption. We evaluated the Fonterra Milk for schools program (a free milk initiative) by determining changes in children's milk…

Coaches and athletes have been increasingly inundated with power related "truths" about their bodies, health and performance as they construct their subjectivities. Over the last couple of decades in New Zealand, schools have initiated elite athlete programmes (EAPs) for a select few students based primarily on their athletic ability and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of classroom-based physical activity interventions that integrate academic content and assess the effectiveness of the interventions on physical activity, learning, facilitators of learning, and health outcomes. Method: Six electronic databases (ERIC, PubMed, Google Scholar,…

Current concerns about a childhood obesity crisis and children's physical activity levels have combined to justify fitness lessons as a physical education practice in New Zealand primary (elementary) schools. Researchers focused on children's understandings of fitness lessons argue that they construct fitness as a quest for an "ideal"…

The aim of this paper was to compare the recruitment strategies of two recent studies that focused on the parental influences on childhood obesity during the preschool years. The first study was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Mind, Exercise, Nutrition?…?Do It! 2-4 obesity prevention programme and the second was a longitudinal cohort…

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the association between the school nutrition climate and students' eating behaviors and body mass index (BMI). Methods: Data were collected as part of Youth'07, a nationally representative health survey of high school students in New Zealand. Overall, 9107 randomly selected students from 96…

Objective: To examine the relationship between family meals and nutrition behaviors of adolescents. Design: Secondary analysis of Youth'07, a nationally representative survey. Setting: Secondary schools in New Zealand. Participants: Randomly selected adolescents (aged 13-17 years, n = 9,107) completed a multimedia and anonymous survey about their…

Fat bodies are not, fait accompli, bad. Yet in our international research, we found overwhelmingly that fat functioned as a marker to indicate health or lack of health. A body with fat was simply and conclusively unhealthy. This article reports on how this unbalanced view of fat was tied to assessments of healthy bodies that were achieved by…

Background: The international literature suggests that obesity is likely to be more pronounced in the population of people with intellectual disability (ID). However, there are no published New Zealand data for this population. Method: We accessed a database containing anonymous data for a New Zealand ID population. Ninety-eight people of 141 had…

This study examined the effect of a 10-week physical exercise program on the health status of college staff. Eighty-one participants were pre-tested on 22 variables including physical fitness, biochemical status, psychological health, and morphological measures. Participants in an experimental group (n = 61) received a 10-week intervention…

Health reportage in New Zealand's popular and professional media regularly features large, avowedly inactive, indigenous and/or "poor" people failing to nurture their children properly on account of their size. While well-meaning government and school-based initiatives explicitly target these so-called "high-need" communities,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical, psychological and biochemical health status of staff members at a higher educational institution (Institute of Technology). Relative large numbers of subjects were identified with hypertension (18.5%), stress symptoms (32.1%), job stress (36%) and emotional exhaustion (11.4%). Thirty percent…