In recent years, diet- and lifestyle-related disorders have become a major health threat in Europe and worldwide. The contributions in this monograph include 2 review articles and 19 original contributions from several countries that provide new information on the existing research elucidating important aspects of children’s and adolescents’ nutrition and lifestyle behavior. The data included in this Special Issue are from large epidemiological studies, including several multicenter and multinational studies, as well as datasets from surveillance initiatives. The topics of interest of this Special Issue include the co-occurrence of multiple health behaviors in children, the role of parenting and early feeding practices, dairy consumption in childhood, validity of dietary intake data, dietary supplement use in children, as well as socioeconomic disparities and eating culture. The diverse articles in this Special Issue highlight the complexity and extent to which nutrition and physical activity behaviors may influence different health aspects of children and adolescents. As seen by the various findings and recommendations, not only is more work in this area required but the translation of this work to practice and policy is imperative if we are to address the challenges impacting the nutrition, physical activity, and health of young populations.

Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.

More children born today will survive to adulthood than at any time in history. It is now time to emphasize health and development in middle childhood and adolescence--developmental phases that are critical to health in adulthood and the next generation. Child and Adolescent Health and Development explores the benefits that accrue from sustained and targeted interventions across the first two decades of life. The volume outlines the investment case for effective, costed, and scalable interventions for low-resource settings, emphasizing the cross-sectoral role of education. This evidence base can guide policy makers in prioritizing actions to promote survival, health, cognition, and physical growth throughout childhood and adolescence.

Children's health has made tremendous strides over the past century. In general, life expectancy has increased by more than thirty years since 1900 and much of this improvement is due to the reduction of infant and early childhood mortality. Given this trajectory toward a healthier childhood, we begin the 21st-century with a shocking developmentâ€"an epidemic of obesity in children and youth. The increased number of obese children throughout the U.S. during the past 25 years has led policymakers to rank it as one of the most critical public health threats of the 21st-century. Preventing Childhood Obesity provides a broad-based examination of the nature, extent, and consequences of obesity in U.S. children and youth, including the social, environmental, medical, and dietary factors responsible for its increased prevalence. The book also offers a prevention-oriented action plan that identifies the most promising array of short-term and longer-term interventions, as well as recommendations for the roles and responsibilities of numerous stakeholders in various sectors of society to reduce its future occurrence. Preventing Childhood Obesity explores the underlying causes of this serious health problem and the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth.

Applied Exercise Psychology emphasizes the application of evidence-based knowledge drawn from the fields of exercise psychology, health psychology, clinical and counseling psychology, and exercise physiology for physical activity behavior change. The book provides readers with: theoretical bases for understanding and promoting physical activity behavior; interventions to use for facilitating physical activity behavior change and the tools for measuring the effectiveness of these interventions; cross-cultural considerations for practitioners to ensure multicultural competency; considerations to guide best practices with special populations (e.g., persons with medical conditions and persons with mental health conditions); overall applied implications and future directions. The collection builds a bridge between up-to-date research findings, relevant field experiences, and applied implications. This is the first book to cover such breadth of topics in applied exercise psychology, with chapters bringing often overlooked issues to the attention of practitioners to promote not only evidence-based practice but also responsible ethics and referral.

Originally published in 1999, this title covers the entire empirical cycle in adolescent health research and education. It describes in depth the development and evaluation of a health education programme designed to enhance everyday health-related behaviours in an adolescent population, and offers comprehensive reviews of developmental theories of adolescence, ethical and theoretical issues in adolescent health education, and the major theories used in adolescent health research. The research presented here led to the development and testing of a new theory – the Theory of Salient Meanings of Behaviour – which departed from the cognitive theories that had thus far dominated adolescent health education and research, but which had often proved inadequate in describing and predicting adolescent health-related behaviour. The inception, growth, testing, and field testing of this new theory are traced here. The book is designed to appeal to both theoretical and applied scientists in the field of adolescent development, adolescent health and health education. A clear research methodology is set out for the complementary use of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program reviews methods used to determine dietary risk based on failure to meet Dietary Guidelines for applicants to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Applicants to the WIC program must be at nutritional risk to be eligible for program benefits. Although "dietary risk" is only one of five nutrition risk categories, it is the category most commonly reported among WIC applicants. This book documents that nearly all low-income women in the childbearing years and children 2 years and over are at risk because their diets fail to meet the recommended numbers of servings of the food guide pyramid. The committee recommends that all women and children (ages 2-4 years) who meet the eligibility requirements based on income, categorical and residency status also be presumed to meet the requirement of nutrition risk. By presuming that all who meet the categorical and income eligibility requirements are at dietary risk, WIC retains its potential for preventing and correcting nutrition-related problems while avoiding serious misclassification errors that could lead to denial of services for eligible individuals.