Smoking rates are high among Arabic-speaking populations, particularly men. Data from six focus groups suggested that smoking was considered normal in home, community and religious settings. It created conflict within families and quit attempts were often made alone. This study highlights the need to include families and community leaders in quit-smoking programs.

Smoking rates among Aboriginal people are high, demonstrating the need for Aboriginal-specific anti-tobacco social marketing campaigns. An Aboriginal-specific poster and radio campaign was piloted and achieved high levels of campaign awareness and cultural appropriateness. High quality, culturally targeted anti-tobacco poster and radio campaigns can be effective in encouraging behaviour change among Aboriginal Australians.

Innovative health promotion strategies are needed to address alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATODs) usage among adolescents. This paper reports the process evaluation of VoxBox as a novel intervention that successfully used rap to engage adolescents in discussion about risks associated with ATODs use. The findings highlight the importance of interventions matching the interests of the targeted population group.

Young people in Samoa experience high rates of sexually transmitted infections and alienation from sexual health services. This paper outlines a health promotion initiative that addressed sexual health for young people in Samoa through education, personal skill development and the implementation of free condom dispensers at the national university campus.

To minimise the risk of Australian employees developing skin cancer, health promoters need to identify indicators of employee preferences for sun protection. Many at-risk employees are not interested in improving their sun protection. As perceptions of susceptibility and self-efficacy are associated with preferences for improving sun protection, health promoters should target these perceptions in strategies to increase employee participation in sun safety behaviours.

It is important to monitor the use of screening for colorectal cancer in a variety of ways. This survey of 2269 people aged 50 years and over who were attending general practices identified that almost half had not been screened, particularly those under 60. It is important for general practitioners to continue to encourage all patients to be screened, even though mailed kits are sent as part of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

Health promotion training can build capacity to address some of the determinants of poor health outcomes experienced by pregnant Aboriginal women and their babies. This evaluation demonstrated that health promotion training increased skills and confidence of maternal and child health professionals to deliver preventive health strategies. Training would be enhanced through ongoing individual and organisational support for participants to integrate health promotion into their work practice.

Prevention of postnatal mental health problems is a health-promotion priority. The aim of this study is to evaluate readiness to implement an innovative mental health-promotion program to extend postnatal primary care from a focus on treatment to include prevention. The results will inform a mental health training program for nurses and the protocol for a cluster randomised controlled effectiveness trial.

A postal questionnaire was used to determine the characteristics of edible gardens in New Zealand schools. Edible gardens were identified as being common in primary and secondary schools, although most gardens were newly established. Edible gardens were integrated in a variety of curriculum-based teaching activities and contributed to each school’s special character and environmental values.

We identified the important beliefs behind hospital nurses’ hand-hygiene decisions. Nurses from 50 Australian hospitals indicated how likely specific advantages and disadvantages, important others in their lives and barriers were to influence their decisions. The nurses were motivated by a reduction in the chance of infection for co-workers, while lack of time and forgetfulness were found to be barriers.