QUARTER 1: January - March 2015 | USC-PRC Notes
"Promoting Health through Physical Activity"
Topics in this issue
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Every Kid in a Park Initiative
Infographic: American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults
Charlotte, NC Celebrates “Wellderly Week”
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Doubles Its Commitment to Helping All Children Grow Up at a Healthy Weight
Upcoming Events and Observances: April, May, June
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON:
Mayors' Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets
RESEARCH NOTES:
Youth Walking and Biking Rates Vary by Environments Around 5 Louisiana Schools
Co-Benefits of Designing Communities for Active Living: An Exploration of Literature
Development of a Nationally Representative Built Environment Measure of Access to Exercise Opportunities The Steps To Health Randomized Trial for Arthritis: A Self-Directed Exercise Versus Nutrition Control Program
REPORTS, SURVEYS, GUIDELINES, RESOURCES:
County Health Rankings and Roadmap Safer Streets, Stronger Economies: Complete Streets Project Outcomes from Across the Country CDC Launches State and Local Programs Website
PROMOTING ACTIVE COMMUNITIES:
IDowntown Pittsburgh Streets to Receive $32 Million Facelift
New Program Brings Bike Education to Latinos in Fort Collins, CO
The New London Apartment Block with Cycle Parking for Every Room
UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:
April, May, June
USC PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTER UPDATE:
USC PRC Announces Availability of Materials for Walking Groups
Update from the National Physical Activity Plan
Update from the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network II
Update from the South Carolina Healthy Brain Research Network
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Every Kid in a Park Initiative
Kicking off for the 2015-2016 school year, the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative will provide fourth grade students and their families with free admission to National Parks and other federal lands and waters for a full year. The initiative is a major effort to get children outside and experiencing both the outdoors for activity and the opportunity to learn about the beautiful national resources the US has to offer, and it comes in conjunction with the 100th birthday of the National Park Service in 2016. Additionally, the initiative will: make it easy for schools and families to plan trips; provide transportation support to schools with the most need; and provide educational materials. The initiative is an administration-wide effort among the National Park Service, Forest Service, Department of Education, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[Source: White House, National Parks]
Infographic: American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults
In celebration of Heart Month in February, the American Heart Association released a new infographic that displays physical activity recommendations for adults in one figure (see here). For more information on the American Heart recommendations for physical activity for adults, see here.
[Source AHA, AHA]
Charlotte, NC Celebrates “Wellderly Week”
In Charlotte, NC the local government has termed a week in March “Wellderly Week,” in celebration of people who are aging well and engaging in activities that might traditionally be thought of as inaccessible to the elderly. The week celebrates local communities of older adults who are living proof that exercise and social activities can be beneficial to the long term health of adults. For more, including local news coverage, see here.
[Source: TWC News]
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Doubles Its Commitment to Helping All Children Grow Up at a Healthy Weight
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced that it will commit another $500 million to research and programming focused on helping all children grown up at a healthy weight. The commitment to childhood health comes after a series of research reports that show progress in previous efforts to slow childhood obesity. With this new $500 million pledge, RWJF signals its commitment to expand and accelerate that progress, with an intensified focus on those places and populations hardest hit by the epidemic. Among the initiatives that will be supported is are research, action, and advocacy strategies focused on five priorities over the next decade, including making physical activity a part of the everyday experience for children and youth.
[Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OBSERVANCES:
APRIL
Cancer Control Month
April 1-30, 2015
National Minority Health Awareness Month
April 1-30, 2015
National Public Health Week
April 6-12, 2015
Medical Fitness Week
April 20-26, 2015
National Start Walking Day
April 1, 2015
National Walk to Work Day
April 3, 2015
World Health Day
April 7, 2015
World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day
April 25, 2015
MAY
American Stroke Month
May 1-31, 2015
Clean Air Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Arthritis Month
May 1-31, 2015
Older Americans Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Bike Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Cancer Research Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Employee Health and Fitness Month
May 1-31, 2015
National High Blood Pressure Education Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Osteoporosis Awareness Prevention Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
May 1-31, 2015
National Physical Education and Sports Week
May 1-7, 2015
National Run A Mile Day
May 1-11, 2015
Screen-Free Week
May 4-10, 2015
National Bike to School Day
May 6, 2014
National Women's Health Week
May 10-16, 2015
National Bike to Work Week
May 11-15, 2015
National Bike to Work Day
May 15, 2014
JUNE
National Trails Day
June 6, 2015
World Environment Day
June 5, 2015
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON:
Mayors' Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets
Mayors across the country are answering a call from US Department of Transportation Secretary (USDOT), Anthony Foxx, to take significant action to improve the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities over the next year. The Mayors’ Challenge is based on the 2010 USDOT Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. Mayors or top elected local officials are challenged to: issue a public statement about the importance of bicycle and pedestrian safety; form a local action team to advance safety and accessibility goals; and take local action on seven Challenge activities. The Challenge is open to all cities, towns, townships, villages, counties, regions, territories, tribal land, States, or other jurisdictions, and registration is still open. For more information, visit the Challenge website here.
[Source: Department of Transportation]
RESEARCH NOTES:
Youth Walking and Biking Rates Vary by Environments Around 5 Louisiana Schools
The Safe Routes to School Program (SRTS) encourages school-aged children to walk and bike to school as a method of reducing the overall prevalence of physical inactivity. However, there is little known about the factors that might encourage or discourage children’s walking and biking to school, including neighborhood and school environment factors such as safety. Researchers in Louisiana used a neighborhood audit tool (Pedestrian Environmental Data Scan [PEDS]) as well as results from survey of teachers and parents about SRTS, and examined the percentage of children who walk or bike from each of five schools in the context of this data. Overall, more children walked to school than biked, and schools with higher scores on the PEDS (more friendly to pedestrians) had more children who walked or biked to school. The results indicate that safety concerns around the schools, as measured by the PEDS, are important influences on children’s active commuting to school, and should be addressed in future programming.
Source:Gustat J. et al. 2015. Youth Walking and Biking Rates Vary by Environments Around 5 Louisiana Schools. Journal of School Health.
Co-Benefits of Designing Communities For Active Living: An Exploration of Literature
With the pervasiveness of physical inactivity worldwide, many organizations have called for a move toward designing the places where we live, work, and play to be more conducive to physical activity. Designing communities in this way could also have additional benefits beyond individual activity levels, which the authors define in six major categories: physical health, mental health, social benefits, safety/injury prevention, environmental sustainability, and economics. In order to better understand the co-benefits of designing communities for active living, the authors conducted an extensive review of scientific and “gray” literature (e.g., reports produced by researchers and practitioners). The review showed that there are extensive co-benefits of activity living efforts that have been reported, with at least two co-benefits described for each type of setting (parks/open space/trails, urban design, transportation, schools, and workplaces/buildings). The environmental features that showed the strongest evidence of multiple co-benefits were park proximity, mixed land use, trees/greenery, accessibility and street connectivity, building design, and workplace physical activity policies/programs. More research is warranted to systematically test the observed co-benefits and fill in some of the identified gaps in the current literature.
Source: Sallis J.F. et al. 2015. Co-Benefits of Designing Communities For Active Living: An Exploration of Literature. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Development of a Nationally Representative Built Environment Measure of Access to Exercise Opportunities
In the past, researchers have used many different methods to measure people’s access to some type of exercise facility, including walking access to parks and distance to recreation facilities. One issue with the previous methods is the lack of consensus between experts and the lack of standardization of the measures. In conjunction with the annual release of 2014 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (www.countyhealthrankings.org), a new measure was developed to assess access to exercise opportunities at the county level in communities across the United States. The authors report on the validity of the measure, as well as preliminary results that using data from the 2014 County Health Rankings. Of interest, greater access to exercise opportunities as measured by the new instrument was associated with lower rates of premature mortality, poor quality of life, obesity, and lack of self-reported leisure-time physical activity. Implications of the measure and suggestions for future research are presented in the article.
Source: Roubal A.M. et al 2015. Development of a Nationally Representative Built Environment Measure of Access to Exercise Opportunities. Preventing Chronic Disease.
The Steps to Health Randomized Trial for Arthritis: A Self-Directed Exercise Versus Nutrition Control Program
Although exercise has been established as an important part of treatment for many types of arthritis, participation in existing programs is low. This study examined outcomes for participants who engaged in one of two programs: an existing but untested exercise program (First Step to Active Health ©) and a nutrition program developed by the researchers (Steps to Healthy Eating). The results indicated that the exercise program participants increased their physical activity significantly more than those who followed the nutrition program. However, both groups benefited from their programs in other areas that are important for people with arthritis. Regardless of their assigned program, participants experienced improvements in lower body strength and flexibility, functional exercise capacity, pain, fatigue, stiffness and confidence to manage arthritis symptoms. The results of this study show that self-directed programs can be an effective strategy to help increase the physical activity and overall physical functioning of adults with arthritis, using a cost-effective and easy to disseminate model.
Source: Wilcox S. et al. 2015. The Steps to Health Randomized Trial for Arthritis: A Self-Directed Exercise Versus Nutrition Control Program. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
REPORTS, SURVEYS, GUIDELINES, RESOURCES:
County Health Rankings and Roadmap
The 2015 County Health Rankings examine 30 factors factors that influence health—including adult obesity rates, physical inactivity rates, access to exercise opportunities, and a food environment index that measures both food insecurity and access to healthy food. The goal of the County Health Rankings is to help communities identify and implement solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. For each area of interest, the report describes the measures used, general status of all counties, trends in scores over the past few years (where available), and describes some of the strategies in place to improve conditions. For the Key Findings Report, visit here; for the full report, visit here.
[Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]
Safer Streets, Stronger Economies: Complete Streets Project Outcomes from Across the Country
This report from Smart Growth America took a look at the impact of 37 Complete Streets projects around the United States to describe the outcomes and benefits of the projects. Among the findings are that the projects have contributed to improved safety but also to economic payoff, which can help to recover project costs. In short, “These low-cost projects squeeze enormous value out of limited street space.”
[Source: Smart Growth America]
CDC Launches State and Local Programs Website
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) recently launched the State and Local Programs website. This new site was built specifically for communities that have received grants from the DNPAO, however it provides useful information for other professionals interested in similar content. The website is divided into four topical areas: physical activity, nutrition, breastfeeding, and cross-cutting. Resources under each topic area include guidance documents, program highlights, interventions, success stories, and more. The site also includes a section with information on what is being done about physical activity, nutrition, and obesity at the state and local level.
[Source: CDC DNPAO]
PROMOTING ACTIVE COMMUNITIES:
Downtown Pittsburgh Streets to Receive $32 Million Facelift
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto announced the beginning of a major facelift for the city’s streets, he called “Envision Downtown.” The $32 million project will be carried out over the next five years, and will include upgrades to the traffic signals, street and sidewalk improvements, bike sharing and bike lanes. The overall goals of the project are to work towards creating complete streets in the city, to encourage active transportation, to reduce traffic congestion using new technologies, and to increase public interaction, public events, and public art.
[Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette]
New Program Brings Bike Education to Latinos in Fort Collins, CO
The Vida Sana program—an initiative the Coalition for Activity and Nutrition to Defeat Obesity (CanDo) which is funded by the state and led by The University of Colorado Health—looks for ways to remove barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle for Latinos. Their newest program is to help Latinos overcome obstacles to increasing their physical activity through bicycling by providing culturally appropriate bicycle education. Vida Sana partnered with the Fort Collins Bicycle Ambassador program, to train the Vida Sana Promotoras to become bicycle ambassadors and offer cycling education in Spanish. For more on the program, click here. For more information on the Bicycle Ambassador Program visit their website by clicking here.
[Source: Salud America]
The New London Apartment Block with Cycle Parking for Every Room
A new apartment now in the early stages of development in downtown London is taking bold stance on the commuting styles of its future residents—there will be approximately one bike parking space for every bedroom (1,500) while there will only be a total of 200 car parking spots. The ample bike parking spaces make this development one of the “most cycle-friendly high-rise[s] in London,” and the building will offer other features including dedicated bike elevators and on-site bike repair facilities. The plans fall in line with new Transport for London development guidelines that lay out a minimum number of bike parking spaces for new buildings, exceeding the expected 1,200 bike spots. While the luxury flats in the current development are out of the price range of many London residents, the move toward supporting bicycle transportation in residential architecture is a positive development.
[Source: Road.cc]
UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:
APRIL
Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association 21st Annual Symposium
April 9-11, 2015
Anaheim, CA
National Outdoor Recreation Conference
April 12-16, 2015
Annapolis, MD
Symposium on Therapeutic Recreation and Adapted Physical Activity
April 20-22 2015
St. Louis, MI
36th Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
April 22-25, 2015
San Antonio, TX
MAY
European Congress on Obesity
May 6-9, 2015
Prague, Czech Republic
Sustainable Trailbuilders Conference
May 24-25 2015
Montreal, Canada
50th Annual Canadian Transportation Research Forum Conference
May 24-25 2015
Montreal, Canada
ACSM's 62nd Annual Meeting and 6th World Congress on Exercise is Medicine
May 26-30, 2015
San Diego, CA
46th Annual Conference of the Environmental Research Design Association
May 27-30, 2015
Los Angeles, CA
JUNE
2015 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
June 3-6, 2015
Edinburgh, Scotland
2015 Annual National Wellness Conference
June 15-18, 2015
Minneapolis, MN
Eurpoean Congress of Epidemiology- Healthy Living 25
June 25-27, 2015
Maastricht, The Netherlands
USC PRC UPDATES:
USC PRC Announces Availability of Materials for Walking Groups
Sumter County on the Move! (SCOTM!) was a community-based study that used strategies for mobilizing, supporting, and reinforcing existing social networks to increase walking. Conducted in partnership with Sumter County Active Lifestyles (SCAL), leaders were recruited and formed groups (ideally 4-8 members) from their existing social networks. SCOTM! provided leadership training for walking team leaders that included strategies for staying motivated and keeping team members motivated, tips for overcoming common barriers, health and safety information, and walking resources in their community. The SCOTM! walking manuals and materials are available for download. Walking maps developed by SCAL to promote walking throughout Sumter County parks and trails are also available and could serve as an example for other areas of the country. Please visit the following site to download materials. For additional information, please contact Deborah Kinnard at KINNARDD@mailbox.sc.edu.
Update from the National Physical Activity Plan
On February 23-24, 2015, over 250 professionals in public health, education, government, and media attended the 2015 National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) Congress in Washington, D.C. Two major goals of the Congress were to highlight important developments and opportunities in physical activity and public health and to engage participants in reviewing and proposing revisions to the NPAP. The Congress opened with a keynote lecture by Dr. Wanda Jones, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in which she emphasized the importance of partnerships in promoting physical activity. To learn more about the NPAP Congress and the NPAP Alliance’s next steps in the revision of the Plan visit their website.
Update from the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network II
With partners from the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Network (SC-CPCRN II) is focused on trainings and interventions to address cancer-related health disparities. Recent publication:
Arp Adams, S., Choi, S.K., Khang, L., Campbell, D., Friedman, D.B., Eberth, J.M., Glasgow, R. Tucker-Seeley, R., Xirasagar, S., Yip, M.P., Young, V.M., & Hebert, J.R. (2015 Jan 30 Epub). Decreased cancer mortality-to-incidence ratios with increased accessibility of federally qualified health centers. Journal of Community Health (DOI 10.1007/s10900-014-9978-8).
Update from the South Carolina Healthy Brain Research Network
The objectives of the South Carolina Healthy Brain Research Network (SC-HBRN) are to:
(1) Establish a research agenda concerning cognitive health and healthy aging,
(2) Advance research in the areas of cognitive health and healthy aging, and
(3) Support fellowship training of doctoral candidates.
In spring and summer 2015 doctoral students will be recruited into the SC-HBRN Scholars Program. Both 20 hour per week and 10 hour per week positions will be available for doctoral students from the Arnold School of Public Health and the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. The overall goal of the scholars program is to prepare doctoral students for leadership in cognitive health and aging research, research translation, and dissemination. For more information about the SC-HBRN and the upcoming scholars program, please contact Dr. Daniela Friedman at 803.576.5641 or dbfriedman@sc.edu.
Writer: Danielle Schoffman
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This publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U48-DP-001936 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.
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