Mediation analyses in faith-based physical activity (PA) interventions targeting African-American adults are lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychosocial mediators of a faith-based PA intervention with African-American adults. Churches were randomly assigned to receive immediate or delayed (1-year later) training in PA…

This paper reports the process evaluation of a peer group intervention for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention which had positive outcomes for three target groups in Malawi: rural adults, adolescents and urban hospital workers. The six-session intervention was delivered to small groups of 10-12 participants by 85 trained volunteer peer…

Enhancing health literacy is a keystone in health promotion. Yet, most studies on health literacy are limited to functional literacy levels. Furthermore, little evidence is available from children. Based on Nutbeam's outcome model for health promotion, this study aims (i) to elaborate a set of short scales to measure important health literacy…

Growing numbers of adolescents are marginalized by social factors beyond their control, leading to poor health outcomes for their families and future generations. Although the role of the social determinants of health has been recognized for many years, there is a gap in our knowledge about the strategies needed to address these factors in health…

Understanding the contribution of the whole-school staff to health education (HE) is an important goal in HE research. This study aimed to identify the views of staff (principals; teachers; school nurses and doctors; counsellors and administrative, maintenance, canteen and cleaning staff) regarding the nature of their contribution to HE. The…

This study examined a prediction model that integrated three categories of predictors likely to influence adoption of the Quebec Healthy Schools (HS) approach, i.e. attributes of the approach, individual and contextual characteristics. HS receptivity was considered as a potential mediator. For this study, 141 respondents representing 96 schools…

The aim was to comprehensively examine school-based tobacco policy status, implementation and students' perceived smoking at school in regard to gender-specific differences in smoking behavior. We conducted a multilevel-based study to assess two-level effects for smoking among 2350 grades three to six students in 26 randomly selected elementary…

Higher education is an influential sector with enormous potential to impact positively on health and sustainability. The purpose of this paper was to explore its emergent role as a key setting for promoting health and sustainability and for addressing their challenges in an integrated and coherent way. Acknowledging both the relative narrowness of…

This study sought to determine the perspective taken toward understanding adolescent sexual risk behaviors and related biological outcomes (i.e. pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases) since 1990. We content analyzed 324 abstracts representing observational research published between January 1990 and December 2007 for inclusion of ecological…

Patients' health literacy is increasingly recognized as a critical factor affecting health communication and outcomes. We performed this study to assess the levels of health literacy by using Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and Newest Vital Sign (NVS) instruments. Patients (n = 456) at a family medicine clinic completed…

This paper aims to present what is currently known about Indigenous Australians and their engagement in physical activity and to then challenge some of the "taken-for-granted" ways of thinking about promoting or researching physical activity with Indigenous Australians. Major health, education and sport databases, as well as government websites…

The objective of this study was to conduct an evaluation of Reach Out Central (ROC), an online gaming program designed to support the mental health of people aged 16-25. The evaluation sought to determine the benefit of playing ROC on alcohol use, use of coping strategies, psychological distress, resilience and satisfaction with life. Changes in…

Reliability and validity of intervention studies are impossible without adequate program fidelity, as it ensures that the intervention was implemented as designed and allows for accurate conclusions about effectiveness (Bellg AJ, Borrelli B, Resnick B "et al." Enhancing treatment fidelity in health behavior change studies: best practices and…

This longitudinal study aimed to identify individual and environmental predictors of adolescents' sports participation and to examine whether availability of sports facilities moderated the intention-behaviour relation. Data were obtained from the Environmental Determinants of Obesity in Rotterdam Schoolchildren study (2005/2006 to 2007/2008). A…

Objective: To assess various marginal effects of nutrient intakes, health behaviours and nutrition knowledge on the entire distribution of body mass index (BMI) across individuals. Design: Quantitative and distributional study. Setting: Taiwan. Methods: This study applies Becker's (1965) model of health production to construct an individual's BMI…