Promoting Teen Health offers an overview of some of the most serious problems confronting today’s young people and ways to address them through health promotion and education. The first part of the volume covers a broad range of teen health problems, including tobacco, alcohol, and other substance abuse; pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases; mental health problems; and youth violence. Each chapter addresses a specific problem, presenting recent demographic information concerning the problems discussed and strategies that have been shown to work. Resources are included for many of the problems addressed. Following a transition chapter that discusses factors associated with success in health education programs, the second section of the book describes several actual teen health promotion programs, along with the way they were funded, an evaluation of why they were successful, and a brief perspective from one of the participants.

Promoting Teen Health is intended for healthcare and social science professionals engaged in helping young people cope and succeed. It is a must as a general update or practical shelf reference.

Case Studies in Community Health presents 14 classroom-tested case study scenarios, including background information and discussion questions. Written for students in public health and community health courses, these cases help integrate the basic concepts of public health into an applied setting. The case studies provide an opportunity for students to apply those basic concepts to a "real-life" situation. The overall purpose of the book is to help students understand that public health practice occurs in a social context and therefore is subject to all the complexities of a social environment. The cases explore a broad range of topics in three critical areas of public health: epidemiology, health administration, and health program planning.

This text will be of interest students and professionals in family studies, family therapy, gerontology, health communication, medical sociology, nursing, nursing administration, nursing health, nursing research and theory, patient care, public administration, public health, quantitative research and methods, school counseling, social work, and sociology.

A brief instructor’s web page addressing problem-based learning and providing additional information concerning the cases for instructors adopting Case Studies in Community Health is available at www.sagepub.com/instructor_fairbanks.htm

Using the media to promote public health is an innovative and valuable approach. Media Advocacy and Public Health develops the concept of media advocacy as a central strategy for the prevention of public health problems. How we think about health problems, and what we do about them, is largely determined by how they are reported on television, radio, and in the newspaper. Often, crucial issues of public health policy are discussed and decided only after they are made visible by the media. A traditional communication strategy like social marketing focuses on giving people a message. Media advocacy gives people a voice. The first book of its kind, Media Advocacy and Public Health lays out the theoretical framework and practical guidelines to successful media advocacy strategies. Eight case studies, ranging from alcohol to AIDS, vividly illustrate how media advocacy has been successfully applied.

"This book is a thought-provoking, practical guide of how to make a difference to public health using the powerful tool of media advocacy. . . . The book is eminently readable, with handy summaries at the end of each chapter. The penultimate chapter on case studies makes for stimulating, entertaining reading and gives good practical examples, sound advice, and valid reasons for the success or failure of various campaigns. . . . Being an advocate is not easy (indeed, media advocacy is about controversy), but using the strategies outlined in this book will fill those who yearn to make a difference with hope, and provide them with a tool to help make it happen." --Tobacco Control

"The authors of Media Advocacy and Public Health are successful in delineating [their] strategy, both philosophically and practically. . . . Extraordinary detail provided on how to implement media advocacy. . . . This text is the first of its kind and deserves attention both from the standpoint of potentially using the principles, as well as for what it says about the way people are affected by the media."

--NARPPS Journal

USE THIS QUOTE FIRST

"Do you want to convey your health and safety message through the mass media? If you answered yes, this is the book of concrete examples and advice for you. Media Advocacy and Public Health can catapult your media advocacy skills to unsurpassed levels of success."

--Ralph Nader, Public Citizen

ALWAYS USE THIS QUOTE SECOND TO NADER’S

"This book is for those who want to move beyond caring to action. Media Advocacy and Public Health is a valuable resource for those seeking effective, informed, and principled action. For those who want to make a difference, this book can be the difference."

--Reed V. Tuckson, M.D., President, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

"Media Advocacy and Public Health is an invaluable tool for activists, health professionals, community groups--anyone who seeks to use the media for social change. Its lively and down-to-earth style makes it a joy to read. It is full of vivid case studies that provide dramatic illustrations of media advocacy's power to shape the debate on critical public health issues."

--Kathryn C. Montgomery, President, Center for Media Education

"Through its provocative and insightful analysis of the mass media's role in the framing of public health debates, Media Advocacy and Public Health offers a clearly articulated blueprint for potentially successful health interventions. This is a ''must read'' for professionals and academics in the fields of public health, planned social change, and health communication."

--Charles T. Salmon, Emory University School of Public Health

Designed for students and professionals in nursing, health education, and the health/medical sciences, Outcome Measurement for Health Education and Other Health Care Interventions will prove to be a comprehensive, practical, and effective tool in accurately measuring outcomes.

--Academic Library Book Review

How do you design an effective health campaign message? Designing Health Messages explores this question from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors, all well-known for cutting-edge research in their field, demonstrate the necessity of basing message design decisions on appropriate theories of human behavior and communication effectiveness by synthesizing and integrating knowledge and insights from communication and health behavior change. Part I covers theory-driven approaches and includes content and linguistic considerations, the role of fear in content, and using positive affect. Part II discusses audience-centered strategies and looks at the "America Responds to AIDS" campaign and the Cancer Communication's "5 a Day for Better Health" program. This comprehensive volume concludes with recent developments and policy and administrative practices for health message design.

A much-needed book, Designing Health Messages is an indispensable resource and an essential aid for professors, students, and professionals in communication, specifically mass communication, and public health.

"This book would make a strong addition to a graduate-level course on health communication. With complementary reading to broaden students'' knowledge of the core theories and empirical research applied by these authors to message design, this book would enhance students'' capacity to link health communication theory and practice."

--Health Policy and Planning

Many health care practitioners and researchers are aware of the need to employ factor analysis in order to develop more sensitive instruments for data collection. Unfortunately, factor analysis is not a unidimensional approach that is easily understood by even the most experienced of researchers.

Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research presents a straightforward explanation of the complex statistical procedures involved in factor analysis. Authors Marjorie A. Pett, Nancy M. Lackey, and John J. Sullivan provide a step-by-step approach to analyzing data using statistical computer packages like SPSS and SAS. Emphasizing the interrelationship between factor analysis and test construction, the authors examine numerous practical and theoretical decisions that must be made to efficiently run and accurately interpret the outcomes of these sophisticated computer programs.

This accessible volume will help both novice and experienced health care professionals to

• Increase their knowledge of the use of factor analysis in health care research
• Understand journal articles that report the use of factor analysis in test construction and instrument development
• Create new data collection instruments
• Examine the reliability and structure of existing health care instruments
• Interpret and report computer-generated output from a factor analysis run

Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research offers a practical method for developing tests, validating instruments, and reporting outcomes through the use of factor analysis. To facilitate learning, the authors provide concrete testing examples, three appendices of additional information, and a glossary of key terms. Ideal for graduate level nursing students, this book is also an invaluable resource for health care researchers.