Improving Safety and Access for Physical Activity

Regular moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity (PA) is inversely related with obesity, however, few adults are successful in incorporating sufficient PA into their daily lives. Minority and lower-income adults have among the highest obesity rates and lowest levels of regular PA. Increasing environmental supports for safe and convenient places for PA is an emerging public health strategy for PA interventions. Preliminary data by Wilson (PI) and colleagues has revealed through focus groups that low-income minority adults would like to increase the safe places for PA (areas free from crime, containment of stray dogs, increased police patrol) and access to PA (sidewalks/trails and expand opportunities for PA) in their community. In addition, the results of the investigators' preliminary studies suggest that African Americans had psychosocial barriers to PA that included lack of self-motivation, cultural body image issues, and lack of time due to family obligations. The present proposal is innovative in that it specifically tests the efficacy of an intervention that includes both patrolled-walking and social marketing elements to increase PA in low-income African Americans. Three communities will be randomized to receive one of three programs: a police patrolled-walking program plus social marketing intervention, a police patrolled-walking only intervention, or no walking intervention (general health education only; N=390; 130/group). The 24-month intervention will focus on increasing safety (training community leaders to serve as walking captains, hiring off-duty police officers to patrol the walking program, and containing stray dogs), increasing access for PA (marking a walking route), and will include a tailored social marketing campaign for increasing PA (in one intervention community). The investigators will collect data for PA (7-day accelerometer estimates, 4-week PA history), body composition, blood pressure, psychosocial measures, and perceptions of environmental supports for safety and access for PA at baseline, 6-,12-,18-, and 24-months. The primary hypotheses are that the patrolled-walking plus social marketing intervention will result in greater increases in moderate and vigorous PA as compared to a patrolled walking only intervention or no-intervention by 12-months and that these effects will be maintained at 18-month and 24-month assessments.