Objective: While college can be a period of exploration, it is also marked by risky alcohol use. Brief alcohol screening and intervention for college students (BASICS) has yet to be used in the telehealth platform among minority students. This study assesses the short-term outcomes of a pilot telehealth brief alcohol abuse intervention for…

Background: Evidence for the effectiveness of state-mandated body mass index (BMI) screening programs in the United States has been inconclusive, and potential unintended consequences of the programs have been debated. The present review aims to understand parents' perceptions of and responses to school-based BMI screening, and to highlight…

The purpose of this study was to develop, test, and use an instrument to measure the effectiveness of a community-based, mandated drug education intervention program, Youthful Offenders Program (YOP), targeting college students at risk. A total of N = 350 students voluntarily agreed to participate in an evaluation of program effectiveness using…

Objective: Theory use may enhance effectiveness of behavioral interventions, yet critics question whether theory-based interventions have been sufficiently scrutinized. This study applied a framework to evaluate theory use in physical activity interventions for breast cancer survivors. The aims were to (1) evaluate theory application intensity and…

A growing body of evidence suggests that financial incentives can influence health behavior change, but research on the public acceptability of these programs and factors that predict public support have been limited. A representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 526) were randomly assigned to receive an incentive program description in which the…

Background: The evidence is limited comparing the effects of entertainment-education (E-E) narrative versus nonnarrative interventions to educate and motivate Latinas to engage in mammography screening. Aims: This study compared an E-E narrative intervention to two nonnarrative interventions' effects among Latinas on breast cancer knowledge and…

The CORFIS ("Community-Based Cardiovascular Risk Factors Intervention Strategies") program was piloted in community clinics in Malaysia to address the lack of health education in chronic disease management. The stages of change model was applied in a multicenter quasi-experimental design to evaluate adherence to advocated behaviors in…

Action Through Churches in Time to Save Lives (ACTS) of Wellness was a cluster randomized controlled trial developed to promote colorectal cancer screening and physical activity (PA) within urban African American churches. Churches were recruited from North Carolina (n = 12) and Michigan (n = 7) and were randomized to intervention (n = 10) or…

Objective: Rural areas may suffer from a lack of access to health care and programmes to promote behaviours such as healthy eating and physical activity. Point-of-testing counselling is a method of promoting a healthy lifestyle during an individual's most "teachable moment". Design/Setting: This longitudinal study examined the effects of…

Although social and cultural contexts act on each level of the multilevel ecologic model to affect cancer risk, health behavior, and cancer screening and promotion in health behavior research, people have yet to develop theories that sufficiently integrate the social and environmental context with group and individual behavior. The "Behavioral…

This study examined the validity of a single-item measure of HIV risk stage of change that HIV prevention contractors were required to collect by the California State Office of AIDS. The single-item measure was compared to the more conventional University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA). Participants were members of Los Angeles…

About 40 years since the first controlled study, screening and brief intervention (SBI) are being disseminated into practice. But many unanswered questions remain. Studies in this special issue address what we know and don't know about alcohol and drug SBI, cost-effectiveness, patient preferences, education for clinicians, quality performance…

School-based body mass index (BMI) screening and parent notification programs have been advanced as an obesity prevention strategy. However, little is known about how to develop and implement programs. This qualitative study explored the opinions and beliefs of parents of elementary school students concerning school-based BMI screening programs,…

Behavioral theories developed through research with mainstream, English-speaking populations have been applied to ethnically diverse and underserved communities in the effort to eliminate disparities in early breast cancer detection. This study tests the validity of the transtheoretical model (TTM) decisional balance measure and the application of…

Purpose: Prevalence estimates of healthy behaviors and preventive care among older adults have not received sufficient attention, despite important health benefits such as longevity and better quality of life. Moreover, little is known about general population prevalences of older adults' efforts to change behavior, motivations to improve health…