Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the association between health behaviours of diet, physical activity, smoking cigarettes, alcohol consumption, safe sex and sleep quality with demographic (e.g. age, gender) and psychological (i.e. stress, self-esteem and sense of coherence) factors in Indian residential college students.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why Saudi Arabian students engage in specific health risk behaviours (HRBs), and if there are gender differences. Design/methodology/approach: In order to find out the situation regarding university students in Saudi Arabia, quantitative data were collected by administering…

Purpose: Sexual education in adolescence may represent the only formal sexual information individuals ever receive. It is unclear whether this early educational experience is sufficient to promote lifelong sexual health literacy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the timing and source of sexual knowledge on current safe sex…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the role of a small-scale project around storytelling as a form of informal education in five health clinics in rural areas of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. The aim of the project is to decrease the stigma around HIV/AIDS and to start an open dialogue in local communities about the disease.…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether greater consideration should be given to the timing of sexual health interventions within the calendar year. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a review of the literature. Findings: The evidence points to seasonality in a number of areas of sexual health among young people, including: the timing…

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the preferences towards sex education and information from a religiously diverse sample of young people. The research builds on growing evidence towards religious affiliation having a strong influence on sexual attitudes and behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 3,007 young people aged 15-18…

Purpose: The paper seeks to explore sexual behaviours and reproductive health knowledge among in-school young people with disabilities (PWD) in Ibadan, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: In the paper a structured questionnaire was administered to 103 randomly selected PWD, aged ten to 25, from four integrated secondary schools in Ibadan. The…

Purpose: This paper explores "lessons learned" resulting from a process evaluation of a peer-led HIV/AIDS prevention programme targeting street children and youth in urban Uganda. The purpose was to explore aspects of implementation that either enhanced or hindered the effectiveness of the peer educator (PE) role.…

This article describes how school nurses estimated their goal attainment in view of the contents and methods of health counselling and their roles and possibilities as health promoters in the school community. Data were collected from the school nurses (n=31) of the Finnish European Network of Health-Promoting schools, using a semi-structured…

This paper reports on an empirical study that investigated the content of and perceptions about reproductive health information among school teachers and learners in a rural area of South Africa. Qualitative methods were used to assess the dissemination and acceptability of and perceptions about information related to HIV/AIDS, sexuality, family…

This article focuses on psychosocial barriers to sexual health and their implications on the design and delivery of mass media-based public health campaigns. A family planning campaign that attempted to address barriers to seeking sexual health information and services by promoting positive attitudes toward couple's communication about sexual…