Health promotion practice
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Health promotion practice · Jan 2014
Examining characteristics of congregation members willing to attend health promotion in African American churches.
Although churches are an important partner for improving health within the African American community, it is not known how congregants are best reached by health promotion activities and thus how best to target members in recruitment. This study examined how characteristics of churches and congregants' beliefs and interests in faith-based health promotion related to their willingness to attend church-based health promotion activities. ⋯ Congregants' belief in the church's role in health promotion and their desire to learn about healthy behaviors highlight the role of the African American church as a partner in addressing health disparities and the need to capitalize on this expectation through stronger partnerships between medical and faith communities.
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Health promotion practice · Jan 2014
Effects of a promotor training on local school wellness advocacy capacity.
There is gap between the enactment and implementation of local school wellness policies. Building the capacity of promotores to engage parents in strengthening local school wellness policy implementation is an innovative strategy. This evaluation study examines the effects of 6 hours of promotor advocacy training to improve local school wellness policy implementation. ⋯ Findings show increased participant self-efficacy, knowledge, and attitudes to advocate for improved local school wellness policy implementation. Participating organizations reported intention to continue supporting promotor local school wellness policy advocacy. Findings illuminate strategies to strengthen promotor capacity to engage parents in local school wellness policy advocacy.
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Health promotion practice · Nov 2013
Indian students' perspectives on obesity and school-based obesity prevention: a qualitative examination.
Childhood obesity has recently been reported as a growing problem in low- and middle-income countries. One potential prevention strategy is to apply effective obesity prevention approaches from the United States and/or other Western countries into programs that can be implemented in developing countries such as India. The purpose of this study was to explore Indian students' perceptions of social-contextual factors related to obesity and whether they perceived a role for school-based obesity prevention. ⋯ Results yielded five relevant themes: (a) student health behavior knowledge, (b) parental influence on health behavior, (c) school influence on health behavior, (d) media influence on health behavior, and (e) contexts for health promotion intervention. We found that students had moderate knowledge related to health behaviors (i.e., food intake and physical activity); that parents, schools, and the media are all important contributors to healthy and unhealthy behavior; and that schools can play an important role in the prevention of obesity. Results suggest that Indian middle socioeconomic status students are already moderately aware of the health benefits to nutritious food intake and physical activity, but parents, schools, and the media can influence unhealthy behaviors.
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Health promotion practice · Sep 2013
Reconciling preferences and constraints in online peer support for youth with asthma and allergies.
In this article, we examine the opportunities and constraints of professionally mediated social networking in health promotion practice. Our analysis is based on the findings of a 12-week participatory study of a peer-led support intervention for youth with asthma and life-threatening allergies. ⋯ We then briefly explain the rationale behind our decision to design and host our intervention using a publicly available website called Ability Online in an effort to balance participants' preferences with important research obligations and safety requirements. Finally, we report on participants' level of satisfaction with the intervention as well as recommendations for health practitioners who wish to use social networking to enhance supports for youth with chronic health conditions.
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Health promotion practice · Jul 2013
A model for evaluating the activities of a coalition-based policy action group: the case of Hermosa Vida.
Scholars and clinicians are increasingly recognizing the complexity of social contexts of health and the need for multifunctioning approaches to health care problems including community- and policy-level strategies. Barriers to change in health care policy can sometimes be attributed to the actions of advocacy coalitions who operate from a limited view of "policy change." Advocates have a tendency to pressure stakeholders to mandate laws as a final resolution of a movement, often leading to failure or, worse, stigmatizing of issues. ⋯ Scholars and policy makers developed the Policy Coalition Evaluation Tool with the intent to create a model to guide and measure efforts and outcomes of a local community-based policy coalition. The authors suggest using community-based participatory research approaches for developing a coalition-specific Policy Coalition Evaluation Tool to increase the effectiveness of advocacy groups and the documentation of coalition activities over time.