Choosing Health

Helping readers understand that their actions and behavior matter

Choosing Health uses real-life applications, behavior change tools, and mobile technologies to speak to today's readers better than any other brief personal health textbook. The 3rd Edition offers guidance for actively improving individuals’ health while new interactive videos, quizzes, activities, and worksheets in Mastering™ Health coach readers through the toughest health topics. With its bold design and inclusion of real reader stories (both online and in the printed material), this text is the one that individuals can most relate to--and the one that will most inspire them to choose a healthy lifestyle.

Also available as a Pearson eText or packaged with Mastering Health

Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience that can be adopted on its own as the main course material. It lets students highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place, even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. Educators can easily share their own notes with students so they see the connection between their eText and what they learn in class – motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning.

Mastering Health is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Interactive, self-paced tutorials provide individualized coaching to help students stay on track. With a wide range of activities available, students can actively learn, understand, and retain even the most difficult concepts.

Note: You are purchasing a standalone book; Pearson eText and Mastering Health do not come packaged with this content. Students, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

If your instructor has assigned Pearson eText as your main course material, search for:

• 0135214211 / 9780135214213 Pearson eText Choosing Health, 3/e -- Access Card    
OR
• 0135214203 / 9780135214206 Pearson eText Choosing Health, 3/e -- Instant Access

If you would like to purchase both the physical text and Mastering Health, search for:

0134517954 / 9780134517957 Choosing Health Plus Mastering Health with Pearson eText -- Access Card Package

Package consists of:

• 0134493672 / 9780134493671 Choosing Health
• 0134517024 / 9780134517025 Mastering Health with Pearson eText -- ValuePack Access Card -- for Choosing Health

April Lynch, MA

April Lynch is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in health, the medical and biological sciences, and human genetics. During her tenure with the San Jose Mercury News, the leading newspaper of Silicon Valley, she served as the Science and Health editor, focusing the paper’s coverage on personal health and scientific developments in the field of disease prevention. She has also worked as a writer and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. April has written numerous articles on personal health, medical and scientific advances, consumer issues such as health insurance, and the ways that scientific breakthroughs are redefining our understanding of health. She has been a frequent contributor to leading university textbooks covering applied biology, nutrition, and environmental health and science. Along with Choosing Health, Lynch has co-authored Health: Making Choices for Life, an innovative personal health textbook for instructors who desire a more detailed, in-depth book for students majoring in health-related subjects. Together with a leading genetic counselor, Lynch is also the co-author of The Genome Book, a hands-on guide to using genetic information in personal health decisions. Her work has won numerous awards from organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Associated Press. Her current interests include a focus on how people receive and interact with health information online as well as how complex scientific and medical information is best shared compellingly and effectively in digital media. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and children.

Karen Vail-Smith, MS, MPA

East Carolina University

Karen Vail-Smith received a BS from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MS and an MPA from East Carolina University. She has been a faculty member in East Carolina University’s Department of Health Education and Promotion for 27 years and has taught over 10,000 college students how to lead healthier lives. She specializes in personal health, alcohol and other drugs,  and human sexuality. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the prestigious UNC Board of Governor’s Distinguished Professor for Teaching award. During her career she has published more than 30 articles in health professional journals, produced 50 nationally-distributed health promotion videos and has been a contributor to several personal health textbooks.

Jerome Kotecki, HSD

Ball State University

Jerome E. Kotecki is a professor of Health Science in the Department of Nutrition and Health Science, located within the College of Health, at Ball State University. Dr. Kotecki earned his doctorate in health education and his master’s degree in exercise science from Indiana University. He has published more than 40 scientific research papers on the prevention, arrest, and reversal of the most common chronic diseases facing Americans today. Kotecki has authored or co-authored multiple textbooks on the importance of healthy lifestyle habits to enhance the multidimensional components of human health and prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions. He has extensive experience in health promotion, with particular focus on physical activity and health. An experienced teacher and researcher, he is devoted to helping students adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles. Kotecki has been recognized for his contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning by his department, college, and university. He is an avid fitness participant and enjoys cycling, resistance training, running, mountain biking, hiking, swimming, and yoga.