Health educators may be expecting the public to accept too much personal responsibility for disease. Genetic, environmental, and other factors may be as important as health-promoting behavior in avoiding disease. If health educators overstate the role of personal responsibility for health, they may lose credibility with the public. (PP)

Health systems agencies are federally funded, health planning agencies responsible for regulatory activities concerning health issues in specific geographic locations. A case history discusses how health educators worked with a health systems agency to improve school health education. (JN)

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of self-deferral, a social screen implemented to protect the U.S. blood supply from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection prior to the advent of laboratory testing. Mathematical models are developed to estimate the number of infectious transfusions ultimately leading to AIDS prior to self-deferral.…

Subpopulations of elderly adults at highest risk for suicide are identified, and several specific programs are described, along with a range of measures to prevent suicide in late life. These measures include primary prevention steps related to education, and secondary prevention involving early identification and assessment of the depressed and…

Reflects on the rise of AIDS cases in gay male adolescents and addresses the need for more research-derived data on the sexual practices of this group. The authors provide an overview of unsafe sexual behaviors and review the literature on gay male adolescents' perceptions regarding safer sex. Implications for counselors and educators are…

In Louisiana, it is estimated that almost 33% of school-age children are at risk for becoming overweight or are already overweight (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). Studies have shown that poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and weight problems often associated with being overweight adversely affect academic performance in school…

Although asthma deaths in children are rare, most asthma deaths should be preventable. No information has been identified in the professional literature addressing the occurrence of asthma deaths in schools. This investigation identified asthma deaths that occurred in US schools between 1990 and 2003 and the circumstances surrounding those deaths.…

This meta-analysis tested the major theoretical assumptions about behavior change by examining the outcomes and mediating mechanisms of different preventive strategies in a sample of 354 HIV-prevention interventions and 99 control groups, spanning the past 17 years. There were 2 main conclusions from this extensive review. First, the most…

Although a necessary component of good program management and accountability, monitoring data do not usually provide answers to questions about whether, how, and why a specific program works. More in-depth, systematic inquiry is needed to do this. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-prevention…

Objective: To describe the effects of a controlled family-based health education/counseling intervention on health behaviors of children with a familial history of cardiovascular diseases (FH-CVDs). Methods: The intervention group (IG, n=432) received 5 counseling sessions. The control groups 1 (CG1, n=200) and 2 (CG2, n=423) received no…

This paper focuses on youth voices about sex and AIDS and reveals significant discrepancies between the "ideal adult worldview" and the "practical youth worldview" on sexual matters. In discussing the 'youth worldview', it draws on Piaget's theories of childhood development and Perry's theory of student development, both…

Many adolescents are susceptible to negative outcomes associated with sexual behavior. This is particularly true for those who initiate sexual intercourse at an early age, have many sex partners, or engage in unprotected sex because these behaviors put one at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This article reviews the…

Among Latinas, the number of cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is increasing relentlessly. From August 1989 to August 1990, there was a 53 percent increase nationally in cumulative AIDS cases among Latinas. In New York City, AIDS is the leading cause of death among Latinas aged 25-34. The conditions and circumstances that place…

Noting that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is expected to become the fifth leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, this paper provides relevant information on AIDS and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) to help educators understand that they can work with children and adults who are HIV positive or who have AIDS. The…

The need to create social work interventions consistent with the needs and perceptions of different gender and ethnic groups has long been recognized. This article presents a method for using empirical data and consumer input to create a gender and ethnically relevant AIDS prevention intervention for African- and European-American adolescents. To…