In the United States, childhood obesity continues to increase at unprecedented rates. School-based occupational therapists can play a more significant role in health promotion and obesity prevention efforts in the school setting. Since this is a relatively new role for occupational therapists, there is still a tremendous gap in the literature…

Using Smoke-Free and Tobacco-Free policies on college and university campuses as an example this article discusses these initiatives in the context of the role of health educators and health education programs. Issues raised are ones that health educators need to consider in any intervention effort. While the importance of intervention is well…

The landscape of childhood health and disease has changed over the past century, and school nurses are now in a unique position to address the conditions that lead to chronic disease, such as obesity. Measuring body mass index (BMI) during childhood and adolescence is the recommended method for screening and/or monitoring obesity in school…

A collaborative study abroad program (between one New Zealand and one U.S. university) on the theme of global health has been offered three times in Australia with 59 students registered to date. The course was developed because it is believed that higher education can play a role in improving global health through the fostering of global…

In theory, improving low-income families' housing and neighborhoods could also improve their children's health, through any number of mechanisms. For example, less exposure to environmental toxins could prevent diseases such as asthma; a safer, less violent neighborhood could improve health by reducing the chances of injury and death, and by…

One approach to halting the childhood obesity epidemic has been the modification of foods available to children during the school day. In recent years there has been an increased focus on obesity prevention efforts among children ages birth to 5 and the role of child care settings in prevention efforts. Head Start serves as an important venue for…

Community-based research (CBR) is an increasingly familiar approach to addressing social challenges. Nonetheless, the role it plays in attaining community impact is unclear and largely unstudied. Here the authors discuss an emerging framework aimed toward fostering community impact through university and community civic engagement. They describe…