The authors surveyed 738 college students aged 18 to 27 years to assess overweight, obesity, dietary habits, and physical activity. They used BMI (body mass index) > or = 25 kg/m2 or BMI > or = 85th percentile and BMI > or = 30 kg/m2 or BMI > or = 95th percentile to estimate overweight and obesity in those aged < or = 19 years. To define overweight and obesity in those > or = 20 years, they used BMI > or = 25 kg/m2 and > or = 30 kg/m2. They found overweight rates of 21.6% using BMI directly and 16.2% using BMI percentile and obesity rates of 4.9% using BMI directly and 4.2% using BMI percentile. More than 69% of the participants reported < 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day and more than 67% reported < 20 g of fiber per day; participants reported physical activity on fewer than 3 d/wk. Most college students are not meeting dietary and physical activity guidelines, suggesting the need for prevention interventions and increased understanding of overweight in college students.

Models of community empowerment help us understand the process of gaining influence over conditions that matter to people who share neighborhoods, workplaces, experiences, or concerns. Such frameworks can help improve collaborative partnerships for community health and development. First, we outline an interactive model of community empowerment that describes reciprocal influences between personal or group factors and environmental factors in an empowerment process. Second, we describe an iterative framework for the process of empowerment in community partnerships that includes collaborative planning, community action, community change, capacity building, and outcomes, and adaptation, renewal, and institutionalization. Third, we outline activities that are used by community leadership and support organizations to facilitate the process of community empowerment. Fourth, we present case stories of collaborative partnerships for prevention of substance abuse among adolescents to illustrate selected enabling activities. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities of facilitating empowerment with collaborative partnerships for community health and development.

Context African Americans disproportionately experience greater smoking attributable morbidity and mortality. Few clinical trials for smoking cessation in African Americans have been conducted, despite a different profile of both smoking and quitting patterns.Objective To compare a sustained-release form of bupropion hydrochloride (bupropion SR) with placebo for smoking cessation among African Americans.Design, Setting, and Participants Randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled trial conducted from February 11, 1999, to December 8, 2000, of 600 African American adults treated at a community-based health care center. Volunteers, who smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day were recruited by targeted media and health care professionals.Intervention Participants were randomly assigned to receive 150 mg of bupropion SR (n=300) or placebo (n=300) twice daily for 7 weeks. Brief motivational counseling was provided in-person at baseline, quit day, weeks 1 and 3, end of treatment (week 6), and by telephone at day 3 and weeks 5 and 7.Main Outcome Measures Biochemically confirmed 7-day point prevalence abstinence at weeks 6 and 26 following quit day. ResultsUsing intention-to-treat procedures, confirmed abstinence rates at the end of 7 weeks of treatment were 36.0% in the bupropion SR group and 19.0% in the placebo group (17.0 percentage point difference; 95% confidence interval, 9.7-24.4; PϽ.001). At 26 weeks the quit rates were 21.0% in the treatment and 13.7% in the placebo groups (7.3 percentage point difference; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-13.7; P=.02). Those taking bupropion SR experienced a greater mean reduction in depression symptoms at week 6 (2.96 [9.45] vs 1.13 [8.84]) than those taking placebo, and after controlling for continuous abstinence, those taking bupropion SR also gained less weight than those taking placebo.Conclusions Bupropion SR was effective for smoking cessation among African Americans and may be useful in reducing the health disparities associated with smoking.

The motivational interviewing skills code (MISC) was used to review 86 audiotaped interactions between clinicians and patients participating in a smoking cessation intervention. Intraclass correlations (ICCs) were completed for two of the MISC elements: global evaluations and behavior counts. Results indicate 75% of the global ratings yielded ICCs in the good to excellent range, while only 44% of the behavior counts yielded this level of accuracy. Adherence scores were created to form overall ratings of clinician adherence to using motivational interviewing and 80% of these competence measures yielded ICCs in the good to excellent range. Specific recommendations regarding modifications for the MISC are suggested based on the data presented.

Although the overall prevalence of tobacco smoking in the United States is decreasing, the proportion of light smokers is increasing and is as high as 50% among some groups. There is growing evidence that light smokers experience significantly higher health risks compared to nonsmokers, and they are often unable to quit smoking on their own. The prevalence of light smoking differs among subpopulations in the US and is particularly common among adolescents, college students, pregnant women, and some ethnic minorities. Characteristics of light smokers in these subpopulations vary, as do the underlying reasons for smoking, barriers to cessation, and treatment issues. Unfortunately, the paucity of research to develop and test effective cessation aids is common across all groups of light smokers. Given the substantial portion of light smokers in these populations, development and dissemination of effective behavioral and pharmacological interventions for light smokers is likely to result in substantial smoking reduction rates in the general population.

A vast majority of methadone patients smoke; yet in the 30 days before the survey only one out of three facilities provided counseling to any patients and only one out of ten prescribed nicotine replacement therapy to any patients. A dual strategy of requiring clinics to provide comprehensive nicotine dependence services and training staff to provide these services may provide the incentive and support necessary for the widespread adoption of treatment for nicotine dependence in methadone facilities.

This case study of community and university research partnerships utilizes previously developed principles for conducting research in the context of Native American communities to consider how partners understand and apply the principles in developing community-based participatory research partnerships to reduce health disparities. The 7 partnership projects are coordinated through a National Institutes of Health-funded center and involve a variety of tribal members, including both health care professionals and lay persons and native and nonnative university researchers. This article provides detailed examples of how these principles are applied to the projects and discusses the overarching and interrelated emergent themes of sharing power and building trust.

Results suggest the Journey DPP is feasible to implement and has the potential to impact behaviors and weight gain associated with risk for type-2 diabetes in Native American youth.