This study is part of an action research project titled "Promotion of School Community Staff's Occupational Wellbeing in Co-operation with Occupational Health Nurses" (2001-04), which aims to promote occupational wellbeing by actions that maintain the staff's ability to work in 12 school communities in Eastern Finland. This paper…

According to a survey by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, over 76% of parents concerned about the escalating childhood obesity rates and the rise of Type II diabetes, see daily physical activity as key to optima health and academic success. Physical education program should help students develop health-related fitness,…

In recent years efforts have been made to emphasize the need for physical education by showing how physical activity helps students reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease; strengthen bones and muscles; supply energy, reduce stress, and help maintain a healthy body weight. This article describes a variety of proactive fitness strategies…

Doctors, nurses and other health care providers are making observational associations that individuals with existing disabilities or those who may be medically fragile are susceptible to adverse effects from toxic exposures than the general population. Because of this, the American Association on Mental Retardation has launched an Environmental…

The American diet has undergone substantial changes, a fact that has negatively impacted the dental health of children. Primary prevention is the ideal method to address the current increased incidence of tooth decay. Educating kids, and their parents, about the qualities of snacks as well as the role of frequency of snacking could help to reduce…

Numerous existing measures assess attitudes toward suicide yet fail to account for contextual factors. The Trinity Inventory of Precursors to Suicide (TIPS) is presented as an alternative, with implications for the development of prevention programs. Having previously reported exploratory analysis of the TIPS; confirmatory factor analysis and…

In Japan, pedometers are so popular that most households there now have several. While pedometers have not yet reached this level of popularity in the United States, the media commonly discuss monitoring physical activity with pedometers. This discussion has focused both on its use as a monitoring device and as a means of physical activity…

The purpose of this article is to highlight key physical education benefits of nontraditional recreation activities, to outline some of the known constraints to implementing these activities, and to recommend strategies for the inclusion of such activities into the physical education curriculum. Based on the results of a qualitative inquiry into…

Preffi 2.0 is an evidence-based Dutch quality assessment instrument for health promotion interventions. It is mainly intended for both planning and assessing one's own projects but can also be used to assess other people's projects (external use). This article reports a study on the reliability of Preffi as an external quality assessment…

The European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach (ESFA) study in six countries tested the effects of a comprehensive smoking prevention approach after 24 (T3; N = 10751) and 30 months (T4; N = 9282). The programme targeted four levels, i.e. adolescents in schools, school policies, parents and the community. In Portugal, 12.4% of the T1…

This is a comprehensive review of policies and research regarding body mass index (BMI) screening in schools in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although there are potential benefits to conducting screenings in schools, there is also the potential to do harm to the children who are identified as overweight. School administrators need to…

Despite the intersectoral nature of health promotion practice many programs limit their evidence base to health sector research and do not draw on evidence from other sectors' research in program design. To help ensure programs are relevant and acceptable to intersectoral partners and intended outcomes are of value to all sectors involved,…

The dramatic increase in our understanding of the brain's development throughout childhood has increased our knowledge of the significance of micronutrients, such as iron and vitamin B-12, for this development. Deficiencies of these micronutrients have been shown to have an impact on students' cognitive development. Regardless of this knowledge,…

This cross-sectional, descriptive correlational research study describes the breakfast-eating habits of 846 inner-city high school students. Fifty-seven percent of students reported skipping breakfast on the day of the survey, despite the free hot-breakfast program at their high school. Significantly more girls than boys skipped breakfast, and…

The extended parallel process model (EPPM) is receiving increasing attention in many undergraduate and graduate persuasion and health communication textbooks and classes. The EPPM is concerned with the effect of four variables on behavior: (1) perceived susceptibility; (2) perceived severity; (3) response-efficacy; and (4) self-efficacy. The first…