Overweight children would not be the first thing a visitor to Grafton, West Virginia, would think of when seeing the small farms that cling to steep hillsides and cultivate the bottomland along the Tygart River as one drives into town. Like most of the state, the landscape around this village nods to pastoral enterprise, suggesting a place where…

National health and fitness data suggests that a significant percentage of children are not on a pathway to leading healthy, physically active lifestyles. Many children are leading sedentary lifestyles due to a lack of opportunity, success, or self-motivation in physical activity. Programs that highlight the use of heart rate monitors offer a…

Students at a midsized public university in the southeast completed the Student Development Task and Lifestyle Inventory at the beginning of their first year, beginning of their sophomore year, and end of their senior year. More involved students reported greater development in moving through autonomy toward interdependence and establishing and…

The increase in life expectancy within the general population has resulted in an increasing number of elderly adults with intellectual disability, and this is reflected in the increased life expectancy in persons with Down syndrome, currently about 56 years. The aim of this study was to study the clinical characteristics, the functional status and…

Parents and educators around the country are concerned about the amount of time children watch television. Part of this concern stems from the fact that a considerable amount of violence is regularly portrayed on television. In addition, those youngsters who watch an excessive amount of television have little time for developing other interests…

Objective: This study considers the physical activity (PA) and dietary habits of British young people according to socio-economic status (SES). Methods: The PA and dietary habits of 98 boys and 101 girls (12.9 0.3 years) from two Welsh secondary schools (school 1 and school 2) were examined. Free school meal eligibility and Census 2001 data were…

Studies show that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Today, more than 23 million American children--or nearly one in every three--are overweight or obese. If childhood obesity is left unaddressed, a generation of individuals could face health, social, and economic challenges that promise to stress government…

The feeding habits acquired during childhood and adolescence have important implications on the health state of individuals, and their physical and emotional well-being. According to WHO (1993), one of the most serious problems that young people face is the excessive consumption of certain types of food that are less healthy. On the other side,…

Given the unprecedented global incidence of overweight in children, the issues that potentially create and sustain a circumstance of epidemic childhood overweight, and the efforts that are underway to prevent and remediate childhood overweight need to be examined. The article explores potentially interrelated causes of obesity/overweight in…

This paper summarizes results of a survey examining educational attitudes, lifestyle, and aspirations of Hispanic students in south Texas. Many students live in impoverished, rural, unincorporated subdivisions called "colonias" that are growing around Laredo, Texas, and other border cities. An introduction to the Texas/Mexico border…

The pamphlets in this packet describe the Montana Health Enhancement Curriculum, a comprehensive program that: combines the disciplines of health and physical education; offers a holistic approach to a quality life; and incorporates wellness principles into the public school curriculum. The program, developed by the Montana Office of Public…

This guide provides an outline of possible course content for a 2-year physical education studies program during years 9 and 10. Teachers will need to supplement the ideas and materials presented in the guide with ideas and information of their own, using the guide as a starting point and resource for developing their own programs. Most of the…

This paper addresses the need to sustain rural towns in Australia through private and public investments. Rural and remote areas of Australia have provided the national economy with crucial export earnings and provided governments with royalties and taxes collected on regional resources. However, government funding for upgrading infrastructures…

This book portrays images and views of approximately 45 Native American women in their roles as mothers, grandmothers, tribal elders, teachers, preservers of traditional beliefs and practices, and leaders in the continuing struggle for survival. An introduction by Anna Lee Walter presents an overview of the modern Native American woman. In the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate among postmenopausal women the relationship of dietary fat intake, tobacco smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and body weight to total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol measures in order to assess the relative influence of each…