BACKGROUND Childhood obesity is a world-wide health problem and development of interventions to prevent or control it is a priority. Obesity is prevalent and on the increase among school-students in Iran, too. As the first step for development of an intervention, the current study was designed to complete our understanding of ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and preferences of primary school children...

Social Informatics is the body of research that examines the design, uses, and consequences of information and communication technologies in ways that take into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts. This article serves as a brief introduction to social informatics. Examples such as computer networks, scientific communication via electronic journals, and public acce...

This focus group study explored the social interaction experiences and strategies of 12 adults with Moebius Syndrome, a rare congenital condition characterized by facial paralysis. Content analysis revealed five themes of social functioning: social engagement/disengagement; resilience/sensitivity; social support/stigma; being understood/misunderstood; and public awareness/lack of awareness of M...

Food marketing environments of Black American consumers are heavily affected by ethnically-targeted marketing of sugar sweetened beverages, fast foods, and other products that may contribute to caloric overconsumption. This qualitative study assessed Black consumers' responses to targeted marketing. Black adults (2 mixed gender groups; total n = 30) and youth (2 gender specific groups; total n ...

In 2012, Canada and other United Nations (UN) Member States endorsed the "Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health" (Rio Declaration), a non-binding pledge which calls on World Health Organization (WHO) Member States to improve/influence the working and living conditions that affect health and well-being. The Rio Declaration sets out actions to address health inequities in fiv...

Pre-diabetes, defined as a glycosylated hemoglobin between 5.7% and 6.4%, is common condition that amenable to intervention ameliorate progression diabetes. The distribution of pre-diabetes at the census tract level in diverse urban communities neighborhood factors may influence community rates are not well understood. social vulnerability index (SVI) was created by Centers for Disease Control ...