The "2016 Disability Statistics Annual Report" presents statistics to address the following types of questions: (1) How many people with disabilities live in the United States; (2) What is the percentage of people with disabilities in different age groups; (3) What is the percentage of people with disabilities for different types of…

A body mass index (BMI) report card is a tool to inform parents about their child's weight status. Body mass index notifications could curb childhood obesity by prompting parents to encourage their children to be more physically active and make better dietary choices, but they could also lower children's self-esteem and increase weight-related…

Obesity is a major public health problem affecting all ages in both developed and developing countries. It is considered the fifth leading risk factor for deaths all over the world as about 2.8 million people die due to obesity each year directly or indirectly. Obesity in elderly is considered one of the most serious public health challenges for…

Currently, overweight and obesity are the most widespread problems in life-style having a significant impact on everyday life, and thus, conduct of life. Further contributory problems may develop in patients with weight problems: deformities of the joints and skeleton (coxarthrosis and gonarthrosis), circulatory problems and arrhythmia. Overweight…

This study aimed to detect the common diseases among Saudi women and their relationship with the level of physical activity and some variables. This study was applied to 1233 Saudi woman in different regions of the Kingdom, and adopted to explore the common diseases: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and asthma. The study results showed…

Food assistance programs--including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), the National School Lunch Program, and the School Breakfast Program--have been remarkably successful at their core mission: reducing food insecurity among low-income children. Moreover, writes Craig Gundersen, SNAP in particular has also been…

About one-quarter of Canadian adults and more than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. Obese children are at risk of becoming obese adults and can experience immediate health consequences such as psychosocial stress, elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, and abnormal glucose tolerance. Monitoring trends in childhood obesity is…

The "Roadmap of Need" is a whole child needs assessment for North Carolina youth, produced annually by the Public School Forum of North Carolina's Center for Afterschool Programs (NC CAP). The Roadmap includes 20 indicators of wellness across four domains: health, youth behavior and safety, education, and economic development. These four…

Background: We attempted to determine whether there was a socioeconomic gradient in 9- to 11-year-old Australian children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and whether school facilities or policies supporting physical activity were associated with school-level socioeconomic status (SES) and MVPA. Methods: Children (N = 528) from 26…

Purpose: Estimating obesity prevalence using self-reported height and weight is an economic and effective method and is often used in national surveys. However, self-reporting of height and weight can involve misreporting of those variables and has been found to be associated to the size of the individual. This study investigated the biases in…

Background: Consumption of social media has quickly evolved into a primary source of health information for many consumers. This seems to be particularly true for individuals seeking to modify chronic health conditions like weight loss, obesity, and obesity-related diseases. Purpose: This study explores whether watching Dr. Oz weight loss episodes…

Unhealthy food advertising is an important contributor to childhood obesity. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of a food advertising literacy program that incorporated components of health-promoting media literacy education on fifth-grade children. Participants were 140 fifth-graders (10 and 11 years old) from one school…

Drawing lessons from research can help policy makers make better decisions. If a large and methodologically varied body of research exists, as with childhood obesity, this is challenging. We present new research and policy objectives for child obesity developed by triangulating user involvement data with a mapping study of interventions aimed at…

This brief report updates data published in August 2010 from the most comprehensive, ongoing nationwide analysis of written wellness policies. It includes data from the 2006-07 through the 2010-11 school years, which were the first five years following the required implementation date for wellness policies. The major findings and trends presented…

Although systems science has emerged as a set of innovative approaches to study complex phenomena, many topically focused researchers including clinicians and scientists working in public health are somewhat befuddled by this methodology that at times appears to be radically different from analytic methods, such as statistical modeling, to which…