Design In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with 111 prisoners in 12 prisons between September and November 2005. Prisoners interviewed included women, older prisoners, young offenders and prisoners from Black and minority ethnic groups.

Setting Prisons in the north and south of England, including men's prisons (categories A—D), young offenders' institutions and a women's prison.

Method Prisoners were interviewed individually by pairs of interviewers, using a topic guide concerned with experiences of health care in prison. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Data were analysed thematically. This article presents prisoners' views on making healthy choices in the areas identified in the 2004 white paper Choosing Health, as priorities for action in public health.

Results All the priority areas of Choosing Health were relevant to the self-identified health needs of prisoners. Opportunities to make healthy choices varied between prisons, particularly in relation to diet, exercise and access to smoking cessation support. Alcohol misuse was considered insufficiently addressed in prison.

Conclusion While imprisonment offers prisoners an opportunity to access health promotion services, in the priority areas identified in Choosing Health prisoners are often prevented from making healthy choices by the prison setting. Barriers exist within the prison setting which limit the ability of prisoners to maintain and improve their health.

Design A qualitative study in which each child participated in two focus groups.

Setting Two primary schools in a deprived ward of Warrington, chosen to contrast with the focus of earlier research on relatively affluent communities.

Method A sample of 32 9 and 10 year olds was randomly selected from two Year 5 classes. Four focus groups were held in total; two in each school. The first explored perceptions of physical activity and the second examined views on food and eating. Discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim and findings emerged through a process of thematic analysis.

Results Children reported being involved in a range of physical activities and recognized the health benefits associated with being active. Boys and girls differed in their attitude towards physical activity, with boys appearing competitive about sport while girls enjoyed a wider range of activities. Children were able to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods, but there was uncertainty over the healthiness of foods containing multiple ingredients (for example, salad in burgers). Children also identified the impact of the local environment, parents, school, the food industry and their peers on their diet and involvement in physical activity.

Conclusions Children receive contradictory messages about food and diet, which they make sense of through their social interactions. The development of obesity prevention strategies and weight management programmes must take into account children's perspectives. Children should be given the opportunity to contribute to the development of initiatives that are set up to prevent and treat obesity.

Design Cross-sectional.

Setting Thirty eight randomly selected primary schools in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Method A mixed-mode methodology was utilized, incorporating semi-structured interviews of 31 classroom teachers and questionnaire responses of 189 teachers from 38 randomly selected schools in NSW.

Results Results indicated teachers believed PE: (1) provides children with opportunities to improve fitness and be active to counter societal trends towards obesity and increased sedentary behaviours; (2) impacts positively on learning and behaviour in the classroom; (3) helps children to improve social skills and allows some children an opportunity to experience success in a unique learning environment. The teachers in the current study believed their programmes were only somewhat successful in achieving outcomes relating to physical activity, self-esteem, motor skills and fitness.

Conclusion Teachers believed PE was beneficial as a vehicle for physical activity and positively impacted on learning and behaviour in the classroom. However, the reasons provided for including PE in their daily programmes were reflected in the delivery of programmes of little educational value.

Design Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was employed as a non-parametric alternative to the t-test for independent samples. This test was employed because the data used in this analysis involved two correlated samples that failed to meet the assumptions of the t-test. The t-test was employed to determine whether a significant difference exists between the means of two distributions or the mean of one distribution and a target value.

Setting The study was conducted in the City of Atlanta's Empowerment Zone, which is made up of 30 neighbourhoods, has a poverty rate of 57.4 per cent and a population of 50,000.

Method Baseline and follow-up data were collected via survey instrumentation from 192 and 128 participants respectively. The data collection instrument collected information on participants' demographic characteristics, knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk and health practices regarding physical activity and dietary behaviour.

Results Findings regarding the anger management component of the intervention revealed significant differences on three of the ten behavioural variables examined, with just one (`I fly off the handle') approaching significance (p < .07). The findings emphasize that empowerment interventions which focus on health empowerment models that are culturally, racially and ethnically appropriate are needed and effective.

Conclusion Intervention programmes aimed to integrate anger management and lifestyle change approaches with cardiovascular disease education, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programmes would be beneficial for patients who want to avail themselves of these interventions (e.g. AMEN).

Methods The CHIP is a four-week health education course designed to help individuals reduce cardiovascular risk by improving nutrition and physical activity behaviours. Analyses were based on 211 CHIP enrollees, aged 24—81 years from Rockford, IL.

Results Improvements in BMI, SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides and glucose continued through 18 months for those who started the programme with higher risk status at baseline.

Conclusion The CHIP is an intensive lifestyle change programme that lowers cardiovascular risks through 18 months.

Sample One thousand and forty nine general dental practitioners working under the PDS or GDS contract.

Locations Randomly selected general dental practitioners working within the NHS in England.

Methods Postal questionnaire, made up of two components: closed questions and a free answer section. Three waves of mailings were undertaken.

Results Poor response rate of 28.5 per cent. Dentists felt marginalized by the government and disillusioned with the new contract. The free answer section was characterized by angry responses and worry about the impact of the changes on patient care and income.

Discussion The fact that the Dental Practice Board circulated the questionnaire made many of the respondents suspicious of the overall aim of the research. This factor may have contributed to the low response rate.

Conclusion More care should have been taken when piloting the questionnaire as the researchers under estimated the difficulties of collecting information in a time of change.