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Health Education Research - current issue

Factors influencing the contribution of staff to health education in schools
Jourdan, D., Mannix McNamara, P., Simar, C., Geary, T., Pommier, J. Understanding the contribution of the whole-school staff to health education (HE) is an important goal in HE research. This study aimed to identify the views of staff (principals; teachers; school nurses and doctors; counsellors and administrative, maintenance, canteen and cleaning staff) regarding the nature of their contribution to HE. The research is based on 207 semi-structured interviews of staff in a sample of five French middle schools (grade 6–9). Content analysis was performed using Bardin's method. The results showed that staff members have different views of their role, three main roles were identified: (i) as an educator in everyday life issues (72%); (ii) individual support, listening (14%) and (iii) taking part in collective projects and facilitation (14%). Professional status has a significant influence on the view they have of their contribution to HE. These results show that in order to facilitate consistent implementation of HE, schools need to be supported to build HE policy (need analysis, definition of priorities and partnerships) and also to develop the means by which an inclusive and real sharing of common culture among all staff can happen; this is not limited to teaching staff but includes non-teaching staff also.
Implementation fidelity in adolescent family-based prevention programs: relationship to family engagement
Byrnes, H. F., Miller, B. A., Aalborg, A. E., Plasencia, A. V., Keagy, C. D. Reliability and validity of intervention studies are impossible without adequate program fidelity, as it ensures that the intervention was implemented as designed and allows for accurate conclusions about effectiveness (Bellg AJ, Borrelli B, Resnick B et al. Enhancing treatment fidelity in health behavior change studies: best practices and recommendations from the NIH behavior change consortium. Health Psychol 2004; 23: 443–51). This study examines the relation between program fidelity with family engagement (i.e. satisfaction and participation) in family-based prevention programs for adolescent alcohol, tobacco or other drug use. Families (n = 381) were those with an 11- to 12-year-old child enrolled in Kaiser Permanente in the San Francisco area. Families participated in one of two programs: Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP) (Spoth R, Redmond C, Lepper H. Alcohol initiation outcomes of universal family-focused preventive interventions: one- and two-year follow-ups of a controlled study. J Stud Alcohol Suppl 1999; 13: 103–11) or Family Matters (FM) (Bauman KE, Ennett ST. On the importance of peer influence for adolescent drug use: commonly neglected considerations. Addiction 1996; 91: 185–98). Fidelity was assessed by: (i) adherence to the program manual and (ii) quality of implementation. No relationships were found for FM, a self-directed program. For SFP, higher quality scores were related to higher parent satisfaction. Higher adherence scores were related to higher satisfaction for youth, yet surprisingly to lower satisfaction for parents. Parent sessions involve much discussion, and to obtain high adherence scores, health educators were often required to limit this to implement all program activities. Findings highlight a delivery challenge in covering all activities while allowing parents to engage in mutually supportive behavior.
Health-related behaviour, knowledge, attitudes, communication and social status in school children in Eastern Germany
Schmidt, C. O., Fahland, R. A., Franze, M., Splieth, C., Thyrian, J. R., Plachta-Danielzik, S., Hoffmann, W., Kohlmann, T. Enhancing health literacy is a keystone in health promotion. Yet, most studies on health literacy are limited to functional literacy levels. Furthermore, little evidence is available from children. Based on Nutbeam's outcome model for health promotion, this study aims (i) to elaborate a set of short scales to measure important health literacy domains in children and (ii) to analyse their associations among each other, with health behaviour as an intermediate health outcome, subjective health, social status and gender. The sample comprised 852 school children in fifth grade, aged 9–13 years, in Western Pomerania, Germany. Items were taken from the child's questionnaire to form short scales for health-related knowledge, attitudes, communication and behaviour. The internal consistencies of the communication and attitude scales were 0.73 and 0.57, respectively. Unidimensional scalability of the knowledge and behaviour scales was supported by item response models. Associations between health scales were modest. In regression analyses, social status and gender predicted only health knowledge and communication but not health behaviours, attitudes and self-efficacy. Health knowledge was not associated with any other scale. Our results suggest that targeting one specific component of health literacy in children is likely to exert only small effects on health status and health behaviour.

Public Health News From Medical News Today

Bed Bugs On The Rise
Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:00:00 -0700
Bed bugs appear to be on the rise around the world, as more and more experts and professionals in pest control report huge rises in prevalence, even so far as to suggest we are on the verge of a bed bug pandemic...
Two Mosquito Pools Tested Positive For West Nile Virus, Boston, Massachusetts
Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:00:00 -0700
The Boston Public Health Commission reported today that two more mosquito pools have confirmed contamination of West Nile Virus (WNV), one pool was detected in North Dorchester and the other one in Hyde Park (first time this season). Authorities inform that previous infected mosquito pools had been found in North Dorchester and West Roxbury...
UC San Diego Earns 2010 Healthiest
Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:00:00 -0700
The University of California, San Diego is dedicated to promoting integrative, holistic and interdisciplinary wellness in its students, staff and faculty, a commitment that has earned the campus recognition as one of the healthiest employers in San Diego...

Public Health News Headlines from Johns Hopkins

Overweight American Children and Adolescents Becoming Fatter
paffairs@jhsph.edu (Office of Communications) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:30:00 -0400
Overweight American children and adolescents have become fatter over the last decade, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and National Institute on Aging (NIA). They examined adiposity shifts across socio-demographic groups over time and found U.S. children and adolescents had significantly increased adiposity measures such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and triceps skinfold thickness (TST). The increases in adiposity were more pronounced in some sex-ethnic groups such as black girls. In addition, these groups gained more abdominal fat over time, which was indicated by waist size and posed greater health risks than elevated BMI. Their results are featured in the August 2010 issue of the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity.
Study Examines Pro-Anorexia and Pro-Bulimia Websites
paffairs@jhsph.edu (Office of Communications) Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:00:00 -0400
A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the content and messages presented by websites that appear to support or encourage eating disorders. These websites use images, text and interactive applications to further knowledge, attitudes and behaviors to achieve dangerously low body weights. The study is the largest and most rigorous analysis of pro-eating disorder websites and it is available online in advance of print in the June 17 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers Discover Additional Benefit of Vitamin A
paffairs@jhsph.edu (Office of Communications) Wed, 12 May 2010 17:00:00 -0400
Vitamin A is critical to maternal health and child survival, yet in most developing countries Vitamin A deficiency is a leading Subscribe to Public_Health_and_Safety RSS feed