Childhood obesity has increased rapidly over the last three decades in the U.S. Individual-level interventions targeting healthy eating and physical activity have not significantly impacted clinical measures of obesity in children. Focusing “upstream” on physical, social, cultural, political, and economic environments may be more effective. The purpose of this qualitative review is to analyze p...

Solving major, persistent public health problems requires new policies and more aggressive, sweeping interventions that affect large populations. We need well-conceived health policies and effective interventions for environmental change, but are we likely to get them? To find out, the Directors of Health Promotion and Education and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated ...

BACKGROUND Recent years have seen a growing research and policy interest in prevention in many developed countries. However, the actual efforts and resources devoted to prevention appear to have lagged well behind the lip service paid to the topic. DISCUSSION We review the evidence on the considerable existing scope for health gains from prevention as well as for greater prevention policy eff...

From 2002 to 2005, we evaluated five Brazilian harm reduction programs ran by active drug users who distributed pipes, condoms, educational material, and provided referral to crack users. System-wide barriers identified: funds discontinuation and legislation barriers toward fieldwork. Major achievements: increased access to health, social, and psychological support. Crack-cocaine users experien...

There are more possible vaccination interventions to mitigate the adverse health consequences of populations in crises than ever before, but recent reviews suggest delivering these vaccines has been fraught with difficulty. The decision to implement vaccination interventions in crises remains, more often than not, an exercise in satisficing. The sparse credible epidemiologic and effectiveness d...

Planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions against infectious diseases depend on the nature of the infectious disease; the availability of intervention measures; and logistical, economic, and political constraints. Infectious diseases and vaccine- or drug-based interventions can be loosely categorized by the degree to which the infectious disease and the intervention are well establis...

Micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) contribute significantly to the world's disease and mortality burden. Global efforts addressing MNDs have achieved significant yet heterogeneous progress across and within regions and countries. For vitamin A and iodine interventions, enhancing achievements in coverage require further political and financial commitment and targeting of hard-to-reach populations...

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of international interventions through their impact on exchange rates. If a specific intervention actually increases (decreases) a country’s economic and political stability, then its currency should appreciate (depreciate). Estimates suggest that peacekeeping forces in Lebanon caused long-run appreciations, while economic sanctions imposed upon South Afric...

Unfortunately, most nation states have taken “health policy” to mean “medical care policy.” Medical care, however, is only one variable in a nation’s health equation. The article describes what the main components of a national health policy should be, including (1) the political, economic, social, and cultural determinants of health, the most important determinants of health in any country; (2...

background and objective: needle stick injuries (nsis) are a common potential risk for healthcare workers. the aim of this study was to evaluate preventive interventions against needle stick injury incidents among hcws.   methods: seven hospitals in the iranian chaharmahal-va-bakhtiari province were surveyed between march 2008 to march 2013. data of the needle stick injuries of healthcare worke...