Effectiveness of a three-phase program to provide inner-city high school freshmen with skills to enhance self-perception and exercise greater control over their lives (particularly sexual behavior) was tested. Pretesting and posttesting indicated a significant decrease in frequency of sexual activity and increase in contraception use by program…

Engaged low-income adolescents in community advocacy efforts to transform their schools and communities to reduce substance use. The intervention involved social cognitive constructs (sense of community, perceived self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, incentive value, policy control, and leadership competence). Though there were no changes in…

Examined relationships between teachers' amenability to implementing anti-tobacco programs and features of implementation settings. Telephone surveys of Florida middle and high school teachers indicated that after controlling for other school and community factors, classroom activities remained significant predictors of program effectiveness.…

Objectives: To offer programmers, policy makers, and researchers a scientific basis for developing and selecting smoking cessation treatments for adolescents. Methods: An evidence review panel systematically rated published and unpublished reports of cessation treatments for youth to make recommendations on theoretical foundations, delivery…

Objectives: To summarize recommendations from Youth Tobacco Cessation: A Guide for Making Informed Decisions for careful consideration, selection, implementation, and evaluation of youth cessation interventions. Methods: Recommendations were developed from an evidence review and consensus from a multidisciplinary advisory panel. Results:…

Background: School physical education is available to most young people and provides a structured context for physical activity participation. Regular physical activity during childhood can confer acute and long-term health benefits. From this health perspective one of the goals of physical education is for students to take part in appropriate…

Nutritional well-being among older adults is critical for maintaining health, increasing longevity, and decreasing the impact of chronic illness. However, few well-controlled studies have examined nutritional behavior change among low-income older adults. A prospective, controlled, randomized design examined a five session nutrition education…

This pilot study examined the relational-behavior model (RBM) as an HIV/AIDS assessment tool for at-risk college populations. Based on this theory, a survey was constructed to assess the six areas associated with HIV/AIDS prevention: personal awareness, knowledge deficiency, relational skills, HIV/STD stigmatization, community awareness, and…

An Internet tool for monitoring, personalized feedback and referral was developed to support routine adolescent preventive care and was compared with usual practice using paper and pencil (P&P). A total of 1071 students (average age 15 years) from seven secondary schools were randomly assigned to the Internet or P&P group. The Internet group…

Introduction: Research shows that physicians who model prevention are more likely to encourage preventive behaviors in their patients. Therefore, understanding the health of medical students ought to provide insight into the development of health promotion programs that influence the way these future physicians practice medicine. A…

A literature review identified 12 studies reporting the impact of worksite HIV/AIDS intervention programs. Ten studies reported positive effects on knowledge and/or attitudes. Few had control or comparison groups. Given the small number of studies and poor methodology, the literature on worksite HIV/AIDS intervention was classified as weak.…

Reviews literature supporting the development and implementation of effective human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted disease behavioral interventions for adolescents, street youth, clinic patients, women, heterosexually active men, men who have sex with men, and communities, discussing favorable behavioral outcomes, describing…

The Alcohol-related Harm Prevention (AHP) program is a normative education and skill-acquisition program designed to reduce serious, long-term alcohol-related harm in college students. Without admonishing students not to drink, which is likely to fail in many student populations, the AHP program attempts to give students the necessary perceptions,…

This paper describes a health education program entitled "Young Consumer" project, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Cyprus Consumer Association between March and June 2004. The aim of the project was to promote a healthy lifestyle among a group of Cypriot primary school pupils (11-12 years old). Participants were…

To better understand obesity and overweight among urban African American women, the authors examined sociodemographic, behavioral, and psychological factors within body mass index (BMI) categories. A total of 496 women were recruited for cardiovascular risk factor screening from 20 urban African American churches. Study participants had a mean age…