"Run, Jane, run": central tensions in the current debate about enhancing women's health through exercise.

The advancement of access and opportunities for girls and women in health enhancing physical activity in recent decades is a matter of record. Yet despite burgeoning interest and increased female participation in sport and recreational physical activity, few women are active enough to benefit their health. Even after extensive government campaigns are repeatedly used to educate the public, fewer women than men participate in every age group. Something is drastically wrong when exercise is said to be associated with so many health benefits, yet only a small portion of the female population exercises sufficiently to accrue these benefits. It is important to critically evaluate the challenges inherent in achieving social equity in opportunities for healthy physical activity for all women. As we gain new understandings about how health gains can be achieved by reducing social inequality rather than providing more medical care, we can see how involvement in healthy exercise is closely entwined with the social and economic status of women, disempowering stereotypes of the female body and the issue of control over women's bodies. This paper explores central tensions in the current debate about promoting female health through physical activity across the lifespan by focusing upon (i) the continued medicalization of the female body; (ii) adolescence and the tyranny of physical appearance over health and physical activity choices; (iii) menopause and the perpetuation of disempowering stereotypes into old age; and (iv) issues of diversity and the impact of 'race' and ethnicity upon female health and physical activity. These issues are then examined in light of the discourses of recent population health strategies in Canada and the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health (1996) which both (in differing degrees) demonstrate a continued preoccupation with individual lifestyle change and cautious medical prescription for exercise as recipes for better female health.

Unfit survivors: exercise as a resource for aging women.

Some researchers have suggested that about 50% of aging decline is preventable through improved life-style habits such as participation in regular exercise, yet exercise as a resource for healthier survival is being ignored by many aging women. Though recent research findings highlight regular physical activity as a potent factor in combatting hypokinesis (the disease of inactivity), numerous real and perceived barriers to exercise stand between the older woman and her ability to achieve a better quality of life. Among strategies that have been developed to overcome these barriers are social empowerment initiatives that may encourage women to combat disability by engaging in regular exercise.

Information source utilization and teachers' attributes in physical education: a preliminary test of a rational paradigm.

This study sought to provide empirical evidence concerning physical education information-seeking patterns of elementary teachers at the primary level. It also investigated the relationship between information use patterns and teachers' attributes. A model based on simple utilitarian concepts explaining information use patterns was developed and tested. The basic assumption of the model was that the use of information sources would increase as the perceived benefits of the information derived increased, and the costs of retrieving and using the information decreased. Subjects for the study were elementary school teachers from the Vancouver school system in British Columbia, Canada (N = 86). Simultaneous equation procedures employing limited information likelihood estimators were used to test the model. The results of the study indicated that sources of information internal to the school system dominated utilization patterns. Among these, curriculum support material and discussion with colleagues were highly favored, suggesting that teachers at these grade levels rely heavily upon the experience of others in the same system and the support of very specific resource materials about physical education activities. The research also showed that those who felt they knew more and claimed to enjoy teaching actively sought to acquire more knowledge from more sources than those who knew less. Finally, the study demonstrated that models based on simple assumptions of rationality can predict decisions concerning information utilization.

"Of no use without health": late nineteenth century medical prescriptions for female exercise through the life span.

In the rapidly changing society of the late nineteenth century, American medical theory and practice functioned as a social force to shape and limit the ways in which females viewed their physical potential. This paper analyzes the social and physical expectations which were elaborated for and experienced by middle-class urban females throughout their life span, identifies the kinds of exercise prescriptions which were promoted by doctors to assist women in fulfilling these expectations at different life stages and points out the underlying significance of these prescriptions in defining and perpetuating notions of females' limited physical capabilities. For late nineteenth century women, two significant influences upon their body behavior were: the physical realities of sickness and early death which modified, or curtailed female energy and physical capacity; and the discursive practices of medical experts and scientists concerning the identification and etiology of female ill-health and disease and their agreed upon therapies for assisting women to maintain, or regain their health. An understanding of the disease model which informed medical prescriptions for exercise explains, in part, why physicians concentrated their efforts upon women's reproductive capacity and lifestyle habits-rather than upon the widespread and devastating diseases that took such a toll upon women before the turn of the twentieth century.

Toxic chemical regulation in Canada: preliminary estimates of costs and benefits.

This paper makes an assessment of the impact of toxic chemical regulation in Canada. Ranges of costs and benefits, supplemented by survey information, analogous American data, interviews and case studies have been used to demonstrate the general usefulness of a cost-benefit framework for public sector decision-making even where information availability is constrained and complete analysis is not feasible. It is concluded that, with few exceptions, the impact of environmental regulation on chemical producers in Canada is neither excessive nor unduly onerous.

Clinical styles and motivation: a study of laboratory test use.

The study reported in this paper examines clinical reasoning styles with a focus on laboratory utilization. A stratified sample of 80 physicians participated in the solution of a simulated patient management problem. The analysis focuses on variation in the portfolio of laboratory tests ordered as a function of practice setting (e,g., physicians in practice versus physicians in training). The study also examines the response of physicians to the imposition of constraints on ordering, as well as behavior, when unlimited ordering capacity is provided. Overall, the data profiles emerging from the analysis indicate the variety inherent in physician decision-making strategies, and point to the necessity of employing a cautious and flexible approach toward any general scheme of constraints upon medical diagnostic procedures;