This document summarizes some of the major developments now underway in health promotion and disease prevention and reviews the federal contribution to achievement of prevention objectives. The first chapter focuses on opportunities in health promotion which offer the key to many potential improvements in the national health status profile and…

The health problems of today are different from those of the past and therefore demand new health care approaches and policies. The goals of the conference on disease prevention and health promotion were: to increase knowledge and understanding of the range of approaches to health promotion; to exchange information about the cost and effectiveness…

This study analyzed the impact of family structure (two-parent families, single-parent female-headed families, or female-headed subfamilies) on health and on medical care utilization by 6,932 children. The stresses of single motherhood led to poorer reported health for young children, regardless of income adequacy, minority group status, or other…

Blind children are entering the Nation's schools in larger numbers than ever before. In addition to those blinded by usual causes, a new eye condition primarily affecting prematurely born infants swept the Nation between 1945 and 1955, leaving thousands of visually handicapped children. Most of these are attaining school age at this time. There…

Explores to what extent the germ theory, when it was still a relatively new idea, is evident in the bibliographic records in the "Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office of the United States Army" (Index Cat), the largest medical bibliographical tool ever published. Data suggest that scientists are quick to apply the new…

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…

Explores hindrances to sustaining African-American mobilization against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Major obstacles include the following: (1) objective conditions; (2) attitudes toward sexuality; (3) perceptions about substance abuse and AIDS; and (4) conflicting policy views. Public health education has not been sufficient in the…

Examines data from the National Center for Health Statistics to determine the health status of African-American men. African-American men have higher mortality and morbidity rates than do white males and use health services less often. Social policies that target health risk behaviors are needed. (SLD)

Substances in the environment that are potentially harmful to children's health and development, from conception onward, include metals such as lead and mercury, pesticides, indoor air pollution, residues of synthetic chemicals, radiation from the sun, nuclear sources, and air pollution. Children's exposures to these substances, as well as…

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of the US Centers for Disease Control's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scale among 522 college students. Methods: Chi-square analysis assessed scale construct validity and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with selected tobacco, alcohol, and substance use variables assessed known-groups validity of the…

This paper takes up the concern that sexual health programs targeting adolescents may actually increase HIV risk among youth by reinforcing dominant versions of masculinity that portray males as sexually irresponsible and unconcerned about their health. If a key aim in HIV prevention education is a renegotiation of high-risk behavioral norms, an…

Traditionally, school-based sex education has provided information-based programmes, with the assumption that young people make rational decisions with regard to the use of condoms. However, these programmes fail to take into account contextual issues and developing subjectivities. This paper presents the talk of 42 young people from a New Zealand…

Most primary prevention research has attempted to explain sexual health outcomes, such as sexually transmitted infections, by focusing on individual characteristics (e.g. age), qualities (e.g. knowledge levels), and risk behaviour (e.g. unprotected intercourse). Emerging evidence indicates that population-level health outcomes are unlikely to be…

Assistance to school principals in preparing their schools to respond to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) issue is provided in this booklet. The first section offers background information on the following: facts about AIDS/HIV; youth risk factors; knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of Canadian youth; the content of AIDS education…

Project HAPPIER (Health Awareness Patterns Preventing Illnesses and Encouraging Responsibility) is assembling a consortium of representatives from departments of education in Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, Georgia, Texas, Washington, Florida, California, and Puerto Rico to develop curriculum units for migrant children for teaching health…