Ken the Movie: Allyship and When KENough is not Enough.

This editorial reviews Barbie the Movie in the context of workplace and community health and well-being. Issues of gender equity, patriarchy, and the role of women in empowering women were all factors that were dealt with thoughtfully and poignantly in the movie's script. A missed opportunity in the movie related to the role men could play as allies in the gender equity movement. Hence, I set out to reconcile this omission by proposing a story line for Ken the Movie. I present gender and health disparities as problems that will require leadership in, and best thinking about, gender equality from both men and women.

Why Not Offer Routine Screenings for Brain Health?

The merits of routine health screening for cancer and cardiovascular diseases are well established given the strong evidence that early detection can lead to effective interventions. Health systems, insurance providers and public health agencies have incorporated systematic approaches to ensuring that preventive screenings for hypertension, hyperlipidemia and cancers are encouraged, readily accessible and reimbursed. Workplace wellness programs intent on containing preventable healthcare costs have also sponsored age- and risk-adjusted health screenings, often including financial incentives to encourage same. Should we also screen for brain health? Is early detection of value for a condition with no proven treatment or cure? This editorial reviews the pros and cons of testing for cognitive decline, Alzheimer's and related dementias and suggests that with nearly every country in the world getting proportionally older, promoting brain health could emerge as a key intrinsic motivation for promoting healthier lifestyles. I conclude that a person-centered approach to deciding about testing is needed given uncertain evidence connecting health behaviors to cognitive decline.

The "Best of 2023 List" of Health Promotion Researchers.

Each year the editorial team of the American Journal of Health Promotion selects our "Best of the Year List" of health promotion studies from the prior year. This editorial features the Editor's Picks Awards, the Editor in Chief Awards, the Michael P. O'Donnell Award and the Dorothy Nyswander Award for the best research and writing published in 2023 in this journal. Our criteria for selection includes: whether the study addresses a topic of timely importance in health promotion, the research question is clearly stated and the study methods used are well executed; whether the paper is often cited and downloaded; if the study findings offer a unique contribution to the literature; and if the paper is well-written and enjoyable to read. Awardees in 2023 offered new insights into legal issues related to obesity and LGBTQ+ discrimination, the role of employers in the use of lifestyle medicine and the influence of Cannabis use on depression and suicide behaviors. This "best of 2023 list" featured studies based in communities, health systems, workplaces and schools and includes case studies and qualitative and quantitative research methods that enabled researchers to better explain what amplifies or hampers well-being.

"A Bowl of Vegetables With Someone You Love": Faith, Health and Workplace Well-Being.

Worksite health and well-being initiatives will ideally be integrated with employers' efforts to address diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) include race, class, community health, income and other variables that companies can play a role in ameliorating. As much as spirituality is commonly espoused as a component of a holistic approach to health promotion, making space to discuss faith and health remains an uncommon strategy in the workplace wellness movement. Recognizing the value on investment (VOI) in wellness has eclipsed a return on investment as a driver of an employer's well-being strategy. This editorial argues that making space for learning about faith and health will intersect in vital ways with anti-racism work, diversity programs and similar efforts to eliminate health inequities, address SDOH and bolster the VOI of worksite well-being initiatives. A fictional dialogue between executives is used to review these issues and related literature.

Crossing the Empathy Chasm: Unpacking a Knapsack Full of Unearned Advantage.

As demand for diversity, equity and inclusion workshops has risen sharply this past year, I'm not the first to observe that the burden for finding solutions, ironically, gets inordinately placed at the feet of people of color. Ironic, of course, because changing the hearts and minds of Whites is a challenge that needs to be met by Whites. McIntosh's White privilege scale has inspired a growing number of other scales that help us examine our unconscious bias, privilege and advantages from our lived experiences. Deepening empathy for people of color is a prerequisite to being of any use whatsoever in a profession committed to health equity. An obvious way to cross the empathy chasm is to be sure those who are accountable for finding solutions have a deep affinity with those who are most directly affected by the problems. In my continued work to cross the empathy chasm, the space I take needs to be as someone intent on listening to, learning from and supporting those with empathy to spare.

The 25 Best Books of All Time for Health Promotion Professionals.

Best books lists are the ultimate opinion pieces. In this editorial, this journal's editorial team go out on a big science limb together and proclaim the 25 books relating to the health promotion profession that we consider "must reads." While several of our selections are standard bearer textbooks that have informed the training of graduates from Schools of Public Health for several decades, many of our best books finalists are best-selling books that have garnered tremendous accolades in the popular press. This best books list for health promotion professionals has been published on publicly accessible blog sites and I invite readers to visit those sites and weigh in with their reactions and recommendations for books that they believe should be included in future lists.

The "Best of 2020 List" of Health Promotion Researchers.

Each year, the editorial team of the American Journal of Health Promotion selects our "Best of the Year List" of health promotion studies from the prior year. This editorial features the Editor's picks, the Editor in Chief's favorites and other award categories for the research and writing published in 2020 in this journal. Our criteria for selection includes: whether the study addresses a topic of timely importance in health promotion, the research question is clearly stated and the methodologies used are well executed; whether the paper is often cited and downloaded; if the study findings offer a unique contribution to the literature; and if the paper is well-written and enjoyable to read. Awardees in 2020 offered new insights into confronting systemic racism, the impact of state health policies on eating behaviors, the role of leaders in influencing employee health practices and the role of physicians in influencing patient health practices. You will see how researchers are studying psychological and emotional resiliency in ever more specific populations.

Genetic Exceptionalism and Precision Health Promotion.

Are social determinants of health overrated? Is parenting overrated? Will the genetics revolution have the same influence on health behavior as powerful determinants such as culture or the environment? In this editorial, I posit that we will learn that genetic testing will have far greater benefits, and fewer harms, when done in conjunction with well-designed health education and lived experiences. I define precision health promotion as the personalized design of lived experiences that foster improved health and well-being for individuals within the context of their organizations, families, and communities. With the need for education and support to augment genetics information will come the need for unequivocal answers about who should know, and who has no business knowing, about your DNA test results.

The "Best of 2019 List" of Health Promotion Researchers.

Each year, the editorial team of the American Journal of Health Promotion selects our "Best of List" of health promotion science from the prior year. This editorial features the Editor's picks, the Editor in Chief's favorites, and other award categories for the research and writing published in 2019 in this journal. Our criteria for selection include such factors as: whether the study addresses a topic of timely importance in health promotion, the research question is clearly stated and the methodologies used are well executed, whether the paper is often cited and downloaded, whether the study findings offer a unique contribution to the literature, and whether the paper is well written and enjoyable to read. Awardees in 2019 shared study findings that demonstrated the vital role of health policies in affecting behaviors and offered new insights into how to engage voices from communities, how intervention dose and reach impact outcomes, and how to better engage the most difficult to reach.

Introducing "Precision Health Promotion": The Convergence of Genomics, Health Education, and Lived Experience.

The prospect that modifying just one mutated letter in a genomic sequence could save millions of lives has spawned a growing discipline called personalized medicine (PM). Where PM focuses on bringing greater precision to individual treatments, the genetics revolution also invites questions about how genetics testing and genetics reference panels can be applied in a public health context. Some voice concerns that the growth of PM will shift us back to an emphasis on the medical model for health advancement with undue focus and investment on individual rather than societal solutions. This editorial introduces precision health promotion and defines it as "the personalized design of lived experiences that foster improved health and well-being for individuals within the context of their families, organizations and communities."

Mindful Eating (Not the Kind You Think) and an Interview With Dr Kevin Walker.

Could it be that self-help concepts like mindfulness meditation have a short shelf life because they're just that, too much about the self and not enough about something far more important? This editorial describes Kevin Walker's research and his new book, "The Grand Food Bargain and the Mindless Drive for More." Walker's book shows why the dozens of federal and state agencies with a slice of accountability for food health and safety are predictably and routinely outgunned by the food industry with respect to influencing the public's health. Describing the dozens of interagency agreements relating to agriculture policies, Walker writes that "food safety in America is held together using the policy equivalent of baling wire and duct tape." Most health promotion professionals who consider the term mindful eating likely first think about principles that relate to being present and techniques that put you in closer touch with the flavors, colors, or textures of your food. In addition to focusing on how creamy a texture feels on our tongues, might advocacy for "mindful eating" have a more abiding impact if it brought with it a deep appreciation for how our food choices affect the health and sustainability of our communities and our Mother Earth? Changing food from an afterthought to a daily reminder about environmental sustainability is a multidimensional challenge that will require multisectoral partnerships and solutions.

Neighborhoods, Work, and Health: Forging New Paths Between Social Determinism and Well-Being.

Tribalism in America and our polarized body politic has, sadly, become part of our daily digest. Is it possible that place-based discrimination will be shown to be an even more powerful impediment to our collective well-being than other formidable health influencers like race or income? If so, how would such a social diagnosis inform strategic planning in health promotion? Waddell and Reed wrote about "possible causal pathways" that show the interaction effects, both positive and negative, between work, health, and well-being. That businesses have focused on individual choices, rather than social influences, is not merely a philosophical leaning of the private sector. Individualism has dominated collectivism in the health care, health research, and health promotion sectors as well. Of the $36 billion approved this year to fund the National Institutes of Health, most will go to biomedical research and a paltry $11 million will be allocated to worksite health promotion. Similarly, in spite of the training of public health professionals about the primacy of social determinants as a predictor of well-being, health education and behavior research over the past 2 decades has overwhelmingly focused on individual interventions and interpersonal characteristics. A new federal survey of worksite health promotion in America shows modest growth in the past decade in the number of companies sponsoring comprehensive approaches to worksite health promotion. However, of the 5 elements constituting a comprehensive approach, the greatest gain in the past two decades has been the increase in companies offering a supportive social and physical environment. This editorial argues that we must think more deliberately about the causal chain that links neighborly social support and collective well-being if we are ever to solve for related issues like obesity, mental illness, and addiction.

Incentives, Mandates, and Taxes: When Doing More Equates to Learning More.

A recent District Court decision held that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), absent a tax penalty relating to the individual mandate, was unconstitutional. This follows on a Circuit Court decision that the ACA wellness provisions should be nullified. This editorial reviews the similarities and differences between the rulings and asks if a reasonable person would believe that offering financial incentives aimed at supporting a modicum of effort at self-care is rational. One survey of employers and health care consumers indicates 91 percent of those surveyed agree that wellness programs are a perk that helps employees improve health and, interestingly, the same percent agree these programs are sponsored by employers to cut costs. Where some may view the cost containment objectives of employee wellness as dubious, it's a minority view. Still, some minorities should and do carry inordinate sway in public health such as the small percent of those living with chronic conditions who are unwilling to participate in a healthy living program that is associated with their receiving full benefits. Are incentives a worthwhile strategy if they fail to motivate those who would benefit most from health improvement?

The Parity in Health Promotion Issue.

Health promotion is complex even when issues of justice and equity are not considered. The dynamic influences of culture, environments, education and upbringing all collude to make promoting fitness, happiness or healthy eating as exciting and unpredictable as a Mars mission. Add the goal of equivalence of benefit for all to this mix, and the launch pad is ever more volatile. To solve for parity we will need to struggle between two of the most time-honored of moral principles. Consequentialism holds that, as Star Trek's Dr. Spock said with his dying breath in his final episode, "the needs of the many are more important than the needs of a few." Categorical reasoning is a belief system where some things are morally righteous no matter the context. Choosing the right principles will require that we better leverage "citizen scientists" because one of the surest ways to satisfy a community's context is to recruit community partners.

Why Health Promotion Needs to Change.

If you ask most health professionals why they do what they do, they invariably speak of being of service. And being of service, for population health workers, becomes ever more meaningful as our work touches ever more lives. To wit, "Kaizen," a Japanese term meaning "change for better," sits shoulder to shoulder with our life's purpose. Health promotion professionals are high performers getting great results but we need to start working on our work. What would it take to increase our impact by 50%? And when we change our processes to accomplish that, what would we change next to get another 50% improvement? Only by stepping back and examining our processes can we see the time and motion required to make what's working now work better and be more accessible to more people next time.

Incentives and Big E Engagement.

The kind of engagement industrial psychologists have shown can produce optimal performance relates more to a state of mind than to increasing participation in programs or motivating a workforce with financial incentives. In the context of quality improvement methodologies, the health promotion profession has yet to discover when, where and how large financial incentives should be and how they best fit in our processes. That is, there is no "standard work" for the use of extrinsic motivators. Yet, to argue against incentives given evidence to date has more to do with polemics than science.

Preserving Employee Privacy in Wellness.

The proposed "Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act" states that the collection of information about the manifested disease or disorder of a family member shall not be considered an unlawful acquisition of genetic information. The bill recognizes employee privacy protections that are already in place and includes specific language relating to nondiscrimination based on illness. Why did legislation expressly intending to "preserve wellness programs" generate such antipathy about wellness among journalists? This article argues that those who are committed to preserving employee wellness must be equally committed to preserving employee privacy. Related to this, we should better parse between discussions and rules about commonplace health screenings versus much less common genetic testing.

The Industrial-Strength Tools Needed for Improving Health Promotion Practice and Fostering a Shift to Well-Being.

Why building a culture of well-being will require a concomitant analysis of environmental and health risk metrics that capture the time-honored definition of health as a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being.

Workplace wellness recognition for optimizing workplace health: a presidential advisory from the American Heart Association.

The workplace is an important setting for promoting cardiovascular health and cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention in the United States. Well-designed, comprehensive workplace wellness programs have the potential to improve cardiovascular health and to reduce mortality, morbidity, and disability resulting from cardiovascular disease and stroke. Nevertheless, widespread implementation of comprehensive workplace wellness programs is lacking, and program composition and quality vary. Several organizations provide worksite wellness recognition programs; however, there is variation in recognition criteria, and they do not specifically focus on cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention. Although there is limited evidence to suggest that company performance on employer health management scorecards is associated with favorable healthcare cost trends, these data are not currently robust, and further evaluation is needed. As a recognized national leader in evidence-based guidelines, care systems, and quality programs, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association is uniquely positioned and committed to promoting the adoption of comprehensive workplace wellness programs, as well as improving program quality and workforce health outcomes. As part of its commitment to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association will promote science-based best practices for comprehensive workplace wellness programs and establish benchmarks for a national workplace wellness recognition program to assist employers in applying the best systems and strategies for optimal programming. The recognition program will integrate identification of a workplace culture of health and achievement of rigorous standards for cardiovascular health based on Life's Simple 7 metrics. In addition, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association will develop resources that assist employers in meeting these rigorous standards, facilitating access to high-quality comprehensive workplace wellness programs for both employees and dependents, and fostering innovation and additional research.

"What's past is prologue": views from Dr. Lawrence Green.

A discussion with visionary Larry Green, a professor, prolific author and co-creator of a health promotion planning framework that has been a core component of public health education academic training for 35 years.