Background: A lack of physical activity (PA) and the occurrence of overweight and obesity among school-aged youth have become a major societal problem. Arising from the general concern about the future generations' health, schools have been found to be potentially important settings to promote positive health behaviour, since all pupils can be…

Overweight and obesity are major health concerns for young people. Schools are particularly promising environments for preventing and treating obesity. The Institutes of Medicine recommends 60 minutes per day of physical activity for children and youth, including at least 30 minutes at school. Yet the amount of moderate to vigorous physical…

Background: High school dropout represents an important public health issue. This study assessed the 3 distinct dimensions of student engagement in high school and examined the relationships between the nature and course of such experiences and later dropout. Methods: We administered questionnaires to 13,330 students (44.7% boys) from 69 high…

Recent evidence indicates that more and more women gamble and develop gambling problems and pathological gambling (PG). Research has further indicated that female and male PGs differ in their clinical characteristics. The aim of this study is to do a critical review of the literature concerning clinical characteristics of female pathological…

Project Fleur-de-lis[TM] (PFDL) was established to provide a tiered approach to triage and treat children experiencing trauma symptoms after Hurricane Katrina. PFDL provides school screening in schools in New Orleans and three tiers of evidence-based treatment (EBT) to disaster-exposed children utilizing a public health approach to meet the…

The option of using Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) to make health services more available and accessible to those who most need them is discussed. The author concludes that a National Health Insurance program will soon emerge and HMO's will be a necessity in that program. (BT)

Background/Context: The issue of how to achieve a racially diverse student population has become increasingly challenging since a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court split decision endorsed the importance of creating diverse schools, while simultaneously limiting the assignment to public schools based on an individual student's race or ethnicity. The article…

Objective: Examine the effect of the "California Children's Power Play! Campaign's School Idea & Resource Kits" for fourth/fifth grades on the psychosocial determinants of fruit and vegetable (FV) intake and physical activity (PA). Methods: Randomized, controlled trial (n = 31 low-resource public schools; 1,154 children). Ten…

Background: Despite progress in the process of deinstitutionalisation, very little is known about the health conditions of people with intellectual disability (PWID) who live in large institutions and PWID living in small residential services, family homes or independent living within the community. Furthermore, there are no international…

One of today's most pressing public health problems is the rise in childhood overweight and obesity. School-based health centers (SBHCs)--the convergence of public health, primary care, and mental health in schools--represent an important element in the public health toolbox for combating the challenging epidemic. When working side-by-side in a…

It has been over twenty years since the publication of reports calling for increased efforts to reform undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. There are more STEM classrooms today that utilize "pedagogies of engagement" than there were twenty years ago; however, these kinds of learning environments are…

Sexual violence within marriage (SVWM) is a major public health and human right issue and yet remains a much neglected research area, especially in Nepal. An exploratory study using free listing, in-depth case histories and causal flow analysis was conducted among two major ethnic groups in Nepal. Descriptive data collected from free listing…

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence, trends, and characteristics of maltreatment and assault related hospital admissions and deaths among children; and identify common injuries and conditions associated with these admissions using routinely collected morbidity and mortality data. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of all children aged…

Marijuana is the number one illicit drug of abuse worldwide and a major public health problem, especially in the younger population. The objective of this article is to update and review the state of the science and treatments available for marijuana dependence based on a pre-meeting workshop that was presented at ISAM 2006. At the workshop,…

Underage drinking and drug use among college students are major public health concerns, yet few studies have examined these behaviors and their associated risk factors and consequences prospectively. This paper describes the sampling and recruitment methods of a longitudinal study of 1253 college students at a large, mid-Atlantic university.…