Milk, juice, or cola? Exploring the effect of product placement on children's attitudes and behavior.

Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern, and scholars and academicians have proposed the use of successful marketing and advertising tactics as a means of influencing healthy behaviors. This research investigates product placement to assess its potential effects on attitudes and behavior when utilized in an animated children's television show. Results from an experiment suggest that multiple product placements may affect children's attitudes toward certain drinks, but also suggest that a child's existing favorite drink is a stronger predictor of actual beverage choice. Implications are provided.

Online Health Communities and Chronic Disease Self-Management.

This research uses content analysis (N = 1,960) to examine the computer-mediated communication within online health communities for evidence of chronic disease self-management behaviors, including the perceived benefits and perceived barriers to participating in such behaviors. Online health communities act as informal self-management programs led by peers with the same chronic disease through the exchange of health information. Online health communities provide opportunities for health behavior change messages to educate and persuade regarding chronic disease self-management behaviors.

Marketing active transportation to school to improve children's health: Utilizing parental perspectives from an inner-city environment.

Thirty years ago, nearly half of the children in the United States walked or rode their bikes to school. Today, less than 15% of children actively commute to school. With the growing obesity epidemic, encouraging children to walk or bike to school has become a national priority. This research examines factors that influence parental decisions allowing their children to walk to school in an urban environment to identify effective marketing and communication strategies to reach those parents. Results indicate differences in parental perspectives across populations; suggestions for effectively marketing the Safe Routes to School program to minority populations are provided.

Active Travel to School: Findings From the Survey of US Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 2009-2010.

BACKGROUND: Whereas children's active travel to school (ATS) has confirmed benefits, only a few large national surveys of ATS exist. METHODS: Using data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2009-2010 US survey, we conducted a logistic regression model to estimate the odds ratios of ATS and a linear regression model to estimate the adjusted mean differences of the percentage of ATS within a school. RESULTS: Overall, 21.4% of children engaged in at least one way of active travel to or from school. ATS was less common for trips to school than from school. Greater distance to school was a major barrier preventing children from ATS. Children living in large cities were more likely to engage in ATS, and schools located in a large city had higher proportions of ATS rate. Children having lower family satisfaction, or engaging in a greater number of physically active days during the past week were all more likely to engage in ATS. CONCLUSIONS: Although ATS is low among US children, significant variation exists. HBSC is a promising data source for an ATS study. As the first study to explore the variation of ATS at school level, this research contributes uniquely to current knowledge.

Self-reported training needs of emergency responders in disasters requiring military interface.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to identify perceived training needs of emergency responders to understand their needs to interface effectively with military operations for emergency response in the event of a disaster. DESIGN: A Web-based survey with civilian medical practitioners and public health professionals was conducted to identify their perceptions of training needs related to civilian-military interface in disaster response. SETTING: Lists of potential survey participants were obtained from local health departments and LISTSERVS in the two regions of interest: the South and the Midwest. PARTICIPANTS: Participants (n = 673) included health practitioners (medical, emergency care, and public health personnel) from hospitals, public service, and other nonprofit and governmental workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Outcomes include perceived training needs, barriers to training, and preferred training formats and modalities. RESULTS: Data indicate a perceived knowledge gap of civilian healthcare providers to interface effectively with military healthcare providers. Nearly three-fourths of respondents did not feel well-trained to work with the military during a disaster response or were unsure if they were well trained. Key areas for training include communication, chain of command during a disaster, and logistics of working with military personnel. Barriers to training include expense; ineffective, boring formats; and excessive time requirements. Most respondents favor interactive exercises rather than didactic training. CONCLUSIONS: Poor communication and lack of familiarity with military operations create barriers to effective coordinated response between military units and civilian responders in federal disaster response. Identifying gaps and training needs for these responders have far-reaching implications in public health's ability to coordinate medical response as part of Emergency Support Function-8.