The need to strengthen the field of health policy and systems research has been widely recognized among public health research organizations. This is especially so in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. Moreover, there is also an increasing interest in the development of new research models with greater capacity to influence policy agendas and health reforms. This publication argues th...

Public- and private-sector initiatives to promote healthy eating and physical activity, called 'healthy lifestyles', are a relatively recent response to the global obesity pandemic. The present paper explores different views about marketing healthy lifestyles with a special emphasis on private-sector initiatives and public-private partnerships designed to reach young people. We discuss aspects ...

Childhood obesity represents a worldwide medical and public health challenge. Academic medical centers cannot avoid the effects of the obesity epidemic, and must adopt strategies for their academic, clinical and public policy responses to childhood obesity. The Center for Healthy Weight at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford provides an example and model of on...

Increasing healthy food options in public venues, including recreational facilities, is a health priority. The purpose of this study was to describe the public recreation food environment in British Columbia, Canada using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. Facility audits assessed policy, programs, vending, concessions, fundraising, staff meetings and events. Focus groups addressed ...

background government policy measures have a key role to play in the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (ncds). the caribbean, a middle-income region, has the highest per capita burden of ncds in the americas. our aim was to examine policy development and implementation between the years 2000 and 2013 on ncd prevention and control in barbados, and to investigate factors promotin...

concerns regarding the trans-pacific partnership (tpp) have raised awareness about the negative public health impacts of trade and investment agreements. in the past decade, we have learned much about the implications of trade agreements for public health: reduced equity in access to health services; increased flows of unhealthy commodities; limits on access to medicines; and constrained policy...