Special Issue "Health Behavior and Public Health"
QuicklinksA special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2011)
Special Issue Editors
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Tetsuji Yamada
Professor of Health Economics, Department of Economics and Center for Children and Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA
Website: http://economics.camden.rutgers.edu/yamada/
E-Mail:
Phone: +1 212 808 5375; +1 856 225 6025 (USA)
Fax: +1 856 225 6602
Interests: health economics; economics of health behavior; public health and health promotion; economics of social welfare and public policy; health education
Guest Editor
Dr. Chia-Ching Chen
Education Dept. of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Health Sciences & Practice, New York Medical College, 95 Grasslands Rd., Valhalla, NY 10595, USA
Website: http://www.nymc.edu/People/Chia-Ching.Chen/index.html
E-Mail:
Interests: accessibility; disparities; psychosocial determinants associated with individual level outcomes
Published Papers
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Behavior change has become a central objective of public health over the last half decade. During the past decade, there has been a remarkable increase in public, private, and professional support in the public health arena in preventing illness and disability by altering individuals’ lifestyle through behavioral changes. Such support comes from behavioral scientists, health educators, health promoters, and health communicators. The influence of prevention within the health services has increased. It is important to underscore the application of behavioral and social science perspectives to research on contemporary health problems.
An increased risk of morbidity and mortality largely depends on individual health behaviors, such as healthcare decisions, smoking, and use of drugs and alcohol. Understanding an influence on health behaviors that are risk factors in disease and illness is essential and associated with behavioral change which would be considered protective and health enhancing. Thus, Disease prevention and early detection contribute to a healthy aging population, curbing a rapid increase in healthcare costs, and improving quality of life. In addition, issues on accessibility of health care and health disparities have become recent important concerns.
Evaluations of health behaviors are key elements to improve public health. Both public and private sectors provide preventive as well as treatment interventions. The increased influence of prevention has coincided with increased multi-lateral levels and the increased need for cost-benefit/effectiveness analyses for allocation of monetary resources.
Health Behavior and Public Health explores research on health education, health communication, health behavioral changes, and public health policies, evaluates them with multilevel aspects, and exchanges knowledge in public health in interdisciplinary and international arenas.
Prof. Dr. Tetsuji Yamada
Guest Editor
Submission Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI. Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs).
Keywords
- illness preventionhealthy lifestyle
- behavioral change
- aging society
- healthcare costs
- accessibility
- quality of life
- health behaviors
- health interventions
- cost-benefit/effective analyses
Submitted Papers
Title: Comparison of BMI Derived from Parent-Reported Height and Weight with Measured Values: Results from the German KiGGS Study
Authors: Anna-Kristin Brettschneider, Ute Ellert and Angelika Schaffrath Rosario
Affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Reporting, Robert Koch Institute, 13302 Berlin, Germany; E-Mails: BrettschneiderA@rki.de (A.-K.B.); EllertU@rki.de (U.E.); RosarioA@rki.de (A.S.R.)
Abstract: The use of parent-reported height and weight is a cost-efficient instrument to assess the prevalence of children’s weight status in large-scale surveys. This study aimed to examine the accuracy of BMI derived from parent-reported height and weight and to identify potential predictors of the validity of BMI derived from parent-reported data. A subsample of children aged 2–17 years (n = 9,187) was taken from the 2003–2006 cross-sectional German KiGGS study. Parent-reported and measured height and weight were collected and BMI was calculated. Besides descriptive analysis, linear regression models with BMI difference and logistic regression models with weight status misclassification as dependent variables were calculated. Height differences varied by gender and were generally small. Weight and BMI were under-reported in all age groups, the under-reporting getting stronger with increasing age. Overall, the proportion for overweight and obesity based on parental and measured reports differed slightly. In the youngest age group, the proportion of overweight children was over-estimated, while it was under-estimated for older children and adolescents. Main predictors of the difference between parent-reported and measured values were age, gender, weight status and parents’ perception of the child’s weight. In summary, the exclusive use of uncorrected parental reports for assessment of prevalence rates of weight status is not recommended.
Keywords: children and adolescents; parental-reports; height; weight; BMI; overweight
Planned Papers
Last update: 20 January 2012