Background: Performing regular muscle-strengthening activity has numerous health benefits, including improvements in blood pressure, hemoglobin A1c, and lean body mass. Despite the disproportionate prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic disease in Latinas (diabetes, hypertension, obesity), most do not report meeting the national guidelines for…

Background: Recent research among cancer survivors suggests that health behaviors and coping are intertwined, with important implications for positive behavior change and health. Informal caregivers may have poor health behaviors, and caregivers' health behaviors have been linked to those of survivors. Aims: This hypothesis generating study…

Objective: To evaluate a health leader-focused church-based breast cancer prevention intervention in relation to congregants' intended participation, congregants' actual participation, and perceived health outcomes at both individual and church levels using socio-ecological and theory of planned behavior frameworks. Method: Participants for the…

We investigated class clustering patterns of four behaviors--physical activity, fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake, smoking, and alcohol use--in a faith-based African American cohort. Guided by socio-ecological models, we also examined the psychosocial and neighborhood social environmental factors associated with the clustering patterns.…

This study used data from 850 African Americans to test optimal matching theory (OMT). OMT predicts that (1) the most important dimensions of social support depend on the controllability of the behavior and (2) different network members often provide support across health behaviors. Data were gathered on social support source for physical…

In 2004, the Women's Sports Foundation published the first edition of "Her Life Depends On It" (Don Sabo, Kathleen E. Miller, Merrill J. Melnick, and Leslie Heywood). At that time, it was clear that evidence-based research confirmed that regular physical activity and sport provides the critical foundation, in no small part, that allows girls and…