Achieving women's health equity and empowerment is a global priority. In a Western context, women are often disempowered by the value society places on body size, shape or weight, which can create a barrier to health. Health promotion programs can exacerbate women's preoccupations with their bodies by focusing outcomes toward achieving an…

The goals of Healthy Campus 2020 are to improve health across college campuses for students. One of the focuses is to increase physical exercise and avoid weight gain and risks for obesity. During this time of transition, many college students do not partake in regular exercise and females are at lower levels of exercise participation compared to…

Background: Knowing which theoretical constructs work best to design effective interventions is essential for populations with increased disease burden. African American women (AAW) experience a greater prevalence of chronic diseases and fewer benefits from weight loss interventions compared to White women. Purpose: To examine how theoretical…

Purpose: Prenatal exercise is a health behavior that is receiving growing attention amid concern that women in Western societies are gaining excess weight during pregnancy and contributing to future obesity in both the mother and child. In this article, we draw on insights from the fields of social epidemiology and social theory of the body to…

This study investigated definitions of support, the types of support perceived as helpful, and types of support desired by adult women maintaining recent weight loss. Qualitative data were collected from 15 women across four focus groups. Thematic analysis indicated that "community" and "self-efficacy," both forms of functional…

Purpose: Many mothers fail to meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity. Popular media magazines targeting mothers provide information about physical activity and health, but little is known about the framing and content of physical activity messages within these sources. The aim of this content analysis was to analyze the framing and…

With the increase in the overweight and obese population, it is critical that pharmacy staff are able to provide weight management advice to women at different stages of their life. This study utilized case vignettes to identify pharmacists' and pharmacy assistants' current weight management recommendations to women of different ages, life stages…

This study investigated the direct and indirect effects of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors in predicting disordered eating behaviors in girls with overweight/obesity. A total of 135 Hispanic and African American girls ([x-bar][subscript age] = 11.13 ± 1.54 years) completed surveys assessing the desire to be thinner, peer…

Health education campaigns for preventing and reducing obesity often contain weight-stigmatizing visual content, which may have unintended negative health consequences. The goal of the present research was to identify non-stigmatizing visual content for health education materials that can promote exercise among people of diverse weight statuses.…

Objective: Although behavioral weight-loss interventions produce short-term weight loss, long-term maintenance remains elusive. This randomized trial examined whether learning a novel set of "stability skills" before losing weight improved long-term weight management. Stability skills were designed to optimize individuals' current…

Objective: To evaluate the capacity of a mobile technology-based intervention to support healthy eating among ethnic minority female students. Participants: Forty-three African American and Hispanic female students participated in a 3-week intervention between January and May 2013. Methods: Participants photographed their meals using their smart…

A randomized controlled trial of two formats of a program (Women Take PRIDE) to enhance management of heart disease by patients was conducted. Older women (N = 575) were randomly assigned to a group or self-directed format or to a control group. Data regarding symptoms, functional health status, and weight were collected at baseline and at 4, 12,…

This study analyzed psychosocial predictors of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and evaluated their associations with short- and long-term moderate plus vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and lifestyle physical activity (PA) outcomes in women who underwent a weight-management program. 221 participants (age…

This study aimed to investigate preferences for, perceived feasibility of and barriers to uptake of hypothetical physical activity promotion strategies among women from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 purposively recruited women (18-45 years) living in socioeconomically…

Background. Pregnancy is an opportune time to initiate diabetes prevention strategies for minority and underserved women, using culturally tailored interventions delivered by community health workers. A community-partnered randomized controlled trial (RCT) with pregnant Latino women resulted in significantly improved vegetable, fiber, added sugar,…