Statewide evaluation of local wellness policies in Georgia: an examination of policy compliance, policy strength, and associated factors.

Objective: To analyze relationships between demographic characteristics of Georgia school systems and: (1) compliance with the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act (CNRA); and (2) strength of wellness policy goals in nutrition, physical activity, and other school-based activities.

Design: Each local school district submitted their school-board-approved wellness policy to researchers. Each policy was reviewed and coded for compliance with CNRA and evaluated on the strength of its goals.

Trends in abdominal obesity in young people: United States 1988-2002.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and trends of abdominal obesity from 1988-1994 to 1999-2002 in American White, Black, and Hispanic youths.

Methods: Data (N = 5020) from the 1988-1994 and 1999-2002 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were used for this analysis. Abdominal obesity was defined as sex-specific values > or = 95th percentile for waist circumference.

Stakeholders' perspectives on health workforce policy reform.

We administered an electronic survey in October-November 2006 to gauge stakeholder perspectives on Australia's recently adopted health workforce policies. Nearly all of the 41 survey respondents (65% response rate) ranked workforce as very important to overall health policy. Respondents identified decreasing health disparities and rates of disease and mortality as top goals, and identified improved quality and safety and more professionals in rural areas as priority measures for success.

Structuring a framework for public health performance-based budgeting: a Georgia case study.

The ability of public health to meet its functional mandates of assessment, assurance, and policy development footline is driven by the system's capacity to meet basic financing needs. To do so, state and local public health leaders must be able to articulate financing needs in terms that are understandable to policy makers and that link funding to anticipated community impact, benefit, and performance. "Rational" budgeting demands imposed by performance-centered budgeting in the states have proved particularly challenging for public health programs.