Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge today, with complex roots interwoven into nearly every facet of American life. This poll addresses one narrow slice of this web: the challenges that families face during the "crunch time" of the work and school week, between 3 pm and the time children go to bed. Compared to the school day, this…

This report documents differences in the earnings and employment patterns of U.S. adults with different levels of education. It also compares health-related behaviors, reliance on public assistance programs, civic participation, and indicators of the well-being of the next generation. In addition to reporting median earnings by education level,…

The "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" ("MMWR") Series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data presented by the Notifiable Disease Data Team and 122 Cities Mortality Data Team in the weekly "MMWR" are provisional, based on weekly reports to CDC by state health departments. This…

This report documents differences in the earnings and employment patterns of U.S. adults with different levels of education. It also compares health-related behaviors, reliance on public assistance programs, civic participation, and indicators of the well-being of the next generation. Financial benefits are easier to document than nonpecuniary…

This study examined the effects of resistance exercise and anabolic steroids on lipoprotein profiles of female weightlifters. The study found that women who participate in resistance training have better lipoprotein profiles than their sedentary counterparts, but these changes do not offset the deleterious effects of steroid use. (SM)

The rate of obesity among school-age children has become a national concern, with the number of overweight children aged 6 to 11 more than tripling over the past three decades (U.S. Government Accountability Office 2005). In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, and in 2002,…

This study measures the nationwide participation rates of girls and boys in exercise and organized team sports. The central focus is on how the intersections among families, schools and communities are related to children's involvement and interest in athletics and physical activity. Some of the personal and social benefits associated with…

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study involves an ongoing series of national surveys of American adolescents and adults that has provided the nation with a vital window into the important, but largely hidden, problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, anabolic steroid use, and psychotherapeutic drug use. For more than a third…

Monitoring the Future (MTF), which is now in its 36th year, is a research program conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research under a series of investigator-initiated research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The study is comprised of several ongoing series of annual surveys of nationally representative…

Findings from a two year study of a corporate fitness program are presented in tabular and chart form. Areas of the fitness program examined included facility usage, program participation (male and female), infirmary visits, and alcohol/drug abuse counseling. Over 90 percent of the employees have had multiphasic screening and exercise tests, 50…

The 1999 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) was conducted as part of a national survey effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A stratified random sample of classrooms in all public schools with ninth through twelfth grades was taken. The YRBS was administered to 1,336 students in 46 public schools in Wisconsin in…

The 2001 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) was conducted as part of a national effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor health-risk behaviors of the nations high school students. This report contains findings from the 2001 Wisconsin YRBS in eight priority areas: protective assets, unintentional injuries,…

This paper provides the results of a 1993 survey of 2,684 New Hampshire high school students in regard to risk taking, personal violence, suicide, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) education, sexual activity, nutrition, and exercise. It found that in the preceding 30 days, 10.8 percent of students…

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was cooperatively developed by Centers for Disease Control and state and local departments of health to assess six health risk behaviors of adolescents that result in the greatest number of morbidity, mortality, and social problems. All public, private, and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in South Dakota, containing…

An abundance of research relative to physical fitness and, more generally, physical education of school children, has surfaced during the past few years. Negative aspects of health and physical fitness are increasing year by year, and further evidence suggests that academic performance is negatively affected by low levels of fitness. A survey was…