Transforming a Small Midwestern City for Physical Activity: From the Sidewalks Up

Abstract

Background:Jackson, Michigan (population 36,000) started active living interventions to help solve residents' low physical activity levels. Jackson's experience can serve as a case study for beginning similar efforts in smaller communities.Methods:In 2003, Jackson began a 3-prong community intervention utilizing the 5P model to increase safe physical activity opportunities and encourage walking and biking for short trips. The focus included work on projects at 1) elementary schools, 2) worksites, and 3) city-wide networks.Results:Evaluation results show changes in attitudes toward active transportation (8% increase in children who thought walking to school was “safer” postintervention), intentions to try active transportation (43% of Smart Commute Day participants “would” smart commute more often postevent), and increased physical activity (the percentage of students walking to school more than doubled at 3 of 4 intervention schools). In addition, a community level observational study was conducted at 10 locations in the city in 2005 and 2006. The number of people seen using active transportation increased from 1,028 in 2005 to 1,853 people in 2006 (a 63% increase).Conclusions:Local community-driven projects to increase walking and biking can be effective by utilizing a variety of interventions, from the individual to the policy level.

Healthy Urban Environments for Children and Young People: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies

“…Seven USA-based studies in relation to four multi-component, community-based environmental change interventions were identified (Chomitz et al, 2012;Dunton et al, 2012;Economos et al, 2007Economos et al, , 2013Folta et al, 2013;Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006). Three primary studies were judged at an overall moderate risk of bias (Dunton et al, 2012;Economos et al, 2007Economos et al, , 2013, with the remainder being identified at serious risk of bias (Chomitz et al, 2012;Folta et al, 2013;Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006).…”

“…Changes to the built environment included improvements for pedestrian safety through the provision of walking paths and signs (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006). Using student self-report measures, increases in the proportion of students walking to school in Michigan were identified in four schools which had at least two years of data (Hendricks et al, 2009).…”

“…Three primary studies were judged at an overall moderate risk of bias (Dunton et al, 2012;Economos et al, 2007Economos et al, , 2013, with the remainder being identified at serious risk of bias (Chomitz et al, 2012;Folta et al, 2013;Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006). Individual domains identified as at serious risk of bias included measurement outcomes (Chomitz et al, 2012;Folta et al, 2013;Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006), confounding (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006) and selection of participants (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006).…”

“…Two of the community-based interventions used a before and after study design without a comparison group (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006). Changes to the built environment included improvements for pedestrian safety through the provision of walking paths and signs (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006).…”

“…Changes to the built environment included improvements for pedestrian safety through the provision of walking paths and signs (Hendricks et al, 2009;Maddock et al, 2006). Using student self-report measures, increases in the proportion of students walking to school in Michigan were identified in four schools which had at least two years of data (Hendricks et al, 2009). However the Hawaii initiative showed, through self-report questionnaire data, that the proportion of students classified as overweight or at risk of being overweight increased and those consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables a day decreased at follow-up (Maddock et al, 2006).…”