This article describes advances in the behavioral self-management of chronic disease from the perspective of a 25-year trajectory of National Institute of Health-funded research in arthritis and cardiopulmonary diseases that has sought to develop a transdisciplinary understanding of how applied behavioral science can be used to improve health…

Broad changes in normative health behavior are critical to overcoming many of the contemporary challenges to public health. Reduction in tobacco use during the last third of the 20th century--one of the greatest improvements in public health--illustrates such change. The culture change from accommodation to intolerance of smoking is irrefutable.…

Objective: To describe a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a basic behavioral science-informed intervention to motivate behavior change in 3 high-risk clinical populations. Our theoretically derived intervention comprised a combination of positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA), which we applied to 3 clinical chronic disease…

Many studies have documented the negative effects of depression on adherence to recommended treatment; however, little is known about the mechanism underlying this relationship. Using the Kenny and Baron analytic framework of mediation, the authors assessed whether self-efficacy mediated the relationship between depression and medication adherence…

This study tested a structural equation model to estimate the relationship between health behaviors, body mass index (BMI), and self-esteem and the academic achievement of adolescents. The authors analyzed survey data from the 2000 study of "Youth in Iceland", a population-based, cross-sectional sample of 6,346 adolescents in Iceland.…

Objectives: To examine the association between health behavior indicators, school contentment, and academic achievement. Methods: Structural equation modeling with 5810 adolescents. Results: Our model explained 36% of the variance in academic achievement and 24% in school contentment. BMI and sedentary lifestyle were negatively related to school…

Objective: Evaluate the relationship between low social support (SS) and adherence to diet in a cardiovascular disease (CVD) lifestyle intervention trial. Design: Prospective substudy. Setting and Participants: Blood relatives/cohabitants of hospitalized cardiac patients in a randomized controlled trial (n = 458; 66% female, 35% nonwhite, mean age…

Examines the concept of school-site health promotion for school faculty and staff, discussing its essential functions and impact and noting what school decision makers at the national, state, and school levels need to know and do to implement such programs. Examples of successful implementation are presented. (SM)

Interest in the relationship between health behaviours and academic achievement has recently intensified in the face of an epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity and converging school reforms in the United States and other nations with advanced economies. Epidemiologic research has demonstrated that poor diet and lack of adequate physical…

The authors administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey to 1,219 college students who were attending a historically Black college located in New York City. They assessed the US-born Black students and Black students who emigrated to the United States for differences in risky sexual behaviors, risky dietary behaviors, and physical…