The 2013 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NCYRBS) was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and adapted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to monitor health-risk behaviors and to measure progress toward achieving Healthy North Carolina 2020 objectives. The survey, administered in…

"Her Life Depends On It III" (HLDOI) is the Women's Sports Foundation's comprehensive report that reviews existing and emerging research on the links between participation in sport and physical activity and the health and well-being of American girls and women. As with the previous editions in 2004 and 2009, this study also confirms that…

This paper draws on research in which 200 children were fitted with motion sensors and asked to keep travel and activity diaries. The findings show that walking and playing away from home can contribute significantly to children's volume of physical activity, with consequent implications for their health. Not only do both playing and walking…

There is a lack of valid and reliable low cost observational instruments to measure moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school physical education (PE). The participants in this study were third to tenth grade boys and girls from a south Texas school district. The SAM (Simple Activity Measurement) activity levels were compared with…

This article reports a cross-national study of developmental change in health-enhancing behavior--healthy eating and regular exercise--among adolescents in China and the United States. The application of a conceptual framework comprising psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors--both proximal and distal and at both the individual…

By 2050, the over 65 year's age group will account for approximately one quarter of the population. This will have many unprecedented social and economic consequences of which one is the cost associated with health. A preventive health related behaviour attracting considerable attention is physical activity, something that becomes less popular…

Current interest in promoting physical activity in the school environment necessitates an inexpensive, accurate method of measuring physical activity in such settings. Additionally, it is recognized that physical activity must be of at least moderate intensity in order to yield substantial health benefits. The purpose of the study, therefore, was…

In this article, readers offer their perspectives on whether pre-service physical educators should be required to demonstrate a proficient level of performance in a wide variety of physical activities. They also suggest activities that are essential for all physical educators.

Objective: To develop and assess reliability and validity of the Nutrition, Food Safety, and Physical Activity Checklist to measure nutrition, food safety, and physical activity practices among adult Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Food Stamp Nutrition Education program (FSNE) participants. Methods: Test-retest…

In this article, a hands-on experiential exercise session in a fitness center is presented as a teaching tool for management instructors to facilitate a theoretically based discussion about the connection between individuals' physical and mental states. Before discussing the components of the exercise session itself, a rationale for integrating…

Using the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, the association between parent-child function and physical activity and television viewing was investigated among a national sample of adolescents in the United States. Parent-child function was measured using the National Survey of Children's Health "Family Function" survey items and…

Convergent validity of accelerometer and electronic diary physical activity data was assessed in children with asthma. Sixty-two participants, ages 9-18 years, wore an accelerometer and reported their physical activity level in quarter-hour segments every 2 hr using the Ambulatory Diary Assessment (ADA). Moderate validity was found between…

Objective: There is a dearth of studies on the mechanisms of multiple risk behaviors, even though these behaviors are significant public health issues. The authors investigated whether health behavior interventions have transfer or compensatory effects on other health behaviors. Participants and Methods: The authors looked at transfer and…

Pedometers are objective, inexpensive, valid, and reliable measures of physical activity. The minimum number of days of pedometer monitoring needed to estimate average weekly step counts was investigated. Seven days of pedometer data were collected from 154 ambulatory men and women ("ns" = 88 and 66, respectively) with intellectual disability.…

A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to predict high school students' cigarette smoking behavior from selected predictors from 2009 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. The specific target student behavior of interest was frequent cigarette use. Five predictor variables included in the model were: a) race, b) frequency of…