Rising health care costs can be minimized if public health education can induce individuals to adopt a wellness-oriented behavior pattern. (LH)

Presents strategies for Head Start programs to use to help parents ensure their children's health, safety, and well-being. Recommends creative approaches such as lending libraries, bulletin boards, displays, take-home information sheets, conferences, small group discussions, and newsletters. Describes the parent health education program at the…

Examines poliomyelitis in the United States by reviewing clinical manifestations and outcomes, history, recent epidemiologic characteristics, characteristics of currently available vaccines, controversies surrounding vaccination policy, current poliovirus vaccination recommendations, and prospects for worldwide eradication. Poliomyelitis remains…

Refugee movements impose tremendous psychological and physical trauma on survivors, making refugees a high risk group for psychopathology and psychosocial adjustment problems. This paper explores the traditional impediments to developing prevention programs for refugees and describes public mental health strategies that could be used for different…

As industry, individuals, and insurance providers realize the benefits of disease prevention, the demand for information and services will grow. Health promotion activities should be tapered to individual needs and resource requirements of the institution planning the program. Programs should include screening procedures to identify underlying…

Discusses four chronic diseases (cystic fibrosis, congenital heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and asthma) that affect American children. Many have their physical activities unnecessarily restricted, though sports and exercise can actually alleviate symptoms and improve their psychosocial development. Physicians are encouraged to prescribe…

Statistical approaches to assess how prevention and intervention programs achieve their effects are described and illustrated through the evaluation of a health promotion program to reduce dietary cholesterol and a school-based drug prevention program. Analyses require the measurement of intervening or mediating variables to represent the…

A wellness program is a formalized approach to preventive health care that can positively affect employee lifestyle and reduce future health-care costs. Describes programs for health education, smoking cessation, early detection, employee assistance, and fitness, citing industry success figures. (eight references) (MLF)

In many low-income communities, children are not properly immunized and are left vulnerable to completely preventable illnesses. This report provides information gained as a result of a 1-year funding project in the Chicago area to determine why so many children were not being immunized and how to increase immunization rates. The project tested 5…

Investigates the nature and causes of performance-related injuries among young musicians. Briefly reviews injuries and health problems associated with specific instruments and gives tips for avoiding and treating these. Includes information on related reference works and journal articles. (MJP)

Harvard Medical School's integration of a curriculum on health promotion and disease prevention is described. The case method was used for all teaching in the curriculum. Students worked together in small groups, addressing the issues raised by each case under the direction of faculty preceptors. (Author/MLW)

Discusses the development and initial implementation of the "Every Child by Two" project. The project is designed to immunize as many newborn through two-year-old children in the United States as possible against communicable childhood diseases, such as measles, and to create a program to systematically immunize this age group in the…

Family Resource Centers/Youth Services Centers were mandated within Kentucky's Education Reform Act to help the state's disadvantaged children and families. The school-based centers provide services to maintain basic necessities and enhance children's health and learning. The article describes how centers are developed, funded, staffed, governed,…

Discusses what is currently known about acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), including routes for the transmission of the AIDS virus, the prevention of AIDS, and some of the non-issues regarding the disease. Urges community leaders and teachers to become more involved in AIDS education. (TW)

In order to highlight the importance of identifying children with elevated blood lead levels, the Illinois Department of Public Health produces its surveillance report to present state and county level data on the number of children screened for and identified with lead poisoning. In Illinois, all children between 6 and 84 months of age must be…