Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a health program comprising the individual experiences, successes and setbacks of adults in an individually tailored, community-based smoking intervention and physical activity program. The program incorporated physical activity consultation (PAC) and phone support from the well-established Quit…

Recommendations for the prevention of childhood obesity encourage providers to counsel parents and their children on healthy diet and activity behaviors. This study evaluated the feasibility of a theory-based, tailored communication intervention for obesity prevention ("Team Up for Health") delivered during a well-child visit. A…

Within the Canadian context, the physical activity levels of children and youth in the after school time period has become a source of public health concern. We argue that this concern is informed by broader public health crises, in particular the "global obesity epidemic" and the closely related "global pandemic of physical…

Purpose: Implementing health promotion programmes in schools is key to improving children's health and well-being but difficulties in achieving expected results are often reported in the research literature. Discrepancies between expected and achieved outcomes can originate from differences in contexts. Understanding how interactions between…

Background: Approximately 31.7% of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Interventions in the afterschool setting may help combat childhood obesity. Research exists on interventions in school settings, but a few data exist for interventions about afterschool programs. This study investigates increasing physical activity (PA) in…

Purpose: Much of what we know about pedometer interventions and imagery interventions with children is grounded in quantitative data. The general purpose of the present study was to qualitatively explore the experiences of children who had participated in a 4-week imagery intervention designed to increase active play. Specifically, the current…

Physical inactivity is an increasing problem among children and adolescents. The TAKE 10!® program, which integrates physical activity (PA) into academic subjects, was implemented in one elementary school in Magna, Utah to increase children's daily in-school PA. A three-study approach was used to examine: (a) effects of TAKE 10!® on elementary…

The national Finnish Schools on the Move programme support schools with their individual plans to promote school-based physical activity (PA). We examined the changes in adolescents' recess and overall PA in four lower secondary schools and described the school actions to promote students' PA and the local contact persons' perceptions of the…

While grappling with their traditional core business of imbuing students with official curricular knowledge, schools have simultaneously, increasing demands to take on health promotion responsibilities. This paper examines the mandated implementation of the Eat Well Be Active (EWBA) Action Plan and its subsidiary "Smart" policies in…

P.E. classes are often the only opportunity for inner-city youth to engage in physical activity, but budget cuts and pressure to perform well on standardized tests has made P.E. an afterthought for many school administrators. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new P.E. curriculum in five Los Angeles inner-city schools. Interviews were…

Afterschool programs have continued to grow in sophistication, increase their offerings and improve quality. As the role of afterschool programs has evolved from primarily providing a safe and supervised environment to a resource that provides a host of supports for their students, programs have become valuable partners in helping students reach…

Afterschool programs continue to make advances when it comes to providing students with nutritious foods, keeping them physically fit and promoting health. Such programs have great potential to help prevent obesity and instill lifelong healthy habits, serving more than 10 million children and youth across America, with more than 19 million more…

Objective: With growing concerns to establish the value for returns on public health investment, there is a need to identify cost-effective physical activity interventions. This study measured change in moderate physical activity (MPA) in seven community-based intervention types, costs and cost-effectiveness of the interventions, and possible…

This study assessed the feasibility and impact of introducing a programme of an additional 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity within curriculum time on learning and readiness to learn in a large elementary school in south-east Queensland, Australia. The programme, Active Kids Active Minds (AKAM), involved Year 5 students (n = 107),…

The goal of the current study was to assess the efficacy and acceptability of a web-based tutorial (Child Health Matters, CHM) designed to improve school nurses' communications with families about pediatric weight-related health issues. Using a randomized wait-list control design, a nationally representative sample of school nurses was assigned to…