Evaluation of the Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners.

Purpose: From 1996 to 2013, a 6-day Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners has been offered yearly in the United States. An evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of the course on building public health capacity for physical activity and on shaping the physical activity and public health careers of fellows since taking the courses.

Method: An evaluation quantified time that fellows spent in different course offerings and surveyed fellows.

Prevention Research Centers: contributions to updating the public health workforce through training.

Because public health is a continually evolving field, it is essential to provide ample training opportunities for public health professionals. As a natural outgrowth of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Prevention Research Centers Program, training courses of many types have been developed for public health practitioners working in the field. This article describes three of the Prevention Research Center training program offerings: Evidence-Based Public Health, Physical Activity and Public Health for Practitioners, and Social Marketing.

Policy and environmental indicators for heart disease and stroke prevention: data sources in two states.

Introduction: Investigators in South Carolina and Alabama assessed the availability of data for measuring 31 policy and environmental indicators for heart disease and stroke prevention. The indicators were intended to determine policy and environmental support for adopting heart disease and stroke prevention guidelines and selected risk factors in 4 settings: community, school, work site, and health care.

Methods: Research teams used literature searches and key informant interviews to explore the availability of data sources for each indicator.