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 our 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). We 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.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DK067615-03
Application #
7617736
Study Section
Behavioral Medicine, Interventions and Outcomes Study Section (BMIO)
Program Officer
Kuczmarski, Robert J
Project Start
2007-05-01
Project End
2011-06-30
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$534,918
Indirect Cost
Name
University of South Carolina at Columbia
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041387846
City
Columbia
State
SC
Country
United States
Zip Code
29208
Sweeney, Allison M; Wilson, Dawn K; Lee Van Horn, M (2017) Longitudinal relationships between self-concept for physical activity and neighborhood social life as predictors of physical activity among older African American adults. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 14:67
Lawson, Andrew B; Ellerbe, Caitlyn; Carroll, Rachel et al. (2016) Bayesian latent structure modeling of walking behavior in a physical activity intervention. Stat Methods Med Res 25:2634-2649
Coulon, Sandra M; Wilson, Dawn K; Van Horn, M L et al. (2016) The Association of Neighborhood Gene-Environment Susceptibility with Cortisol and Blood Pressure in African-American Adults. Ann Behav Med 50:98-107
Coulon, Sandra M; Wilson, Dawn K; Alia, Kassandra A et al. (2016) Multilevel Associations of Neighborhood Poverty, Crime, and Satisfaction With Blood Pressure in African-American Adults. Am J Hypertens 29:90-5
Coulon, S M; Wilson, D K (2015) Social support buffering of the relation between low income and elevated blood pressure in at-risk African-American adults. J Behav Med 38:830-4
McDaniel, Tyler C; Wilson, Dawn K; Coulon, Sandra M et al. (2015) Neighborhood Social Predictors of Weight-related Measures in Underserved African Americans in the PATH Trial. Ethn Dis 25:405-12
Wilson, Dawn K; Van Horn, M Lee; Siceloff, E Rebekah et al. (2015) The Results of the ""Positive Action for Today's Health"" (PATH) Trial for Increasing Walking and Physical Activity in Underserved African-American Communities. Ann Behav Med 49:398-410
Siceloff, E Rebekah; Coulon, Sandra M; Wilson, Dawn K (2014) Physical activity as a mediator linking neighborhood environmental supports and obesity in African Americans in the path trial. Health Psychol 33:481-9
Trumpeter, Nevelyn N; Wilson, Dawn K (2014) Positive Action for Today's Health (PATH): Sex differences in walking and perceptions of the physical and social environment. Environ Behav 46:745-767
George, Melissa W; Trumpeter, Nevelyn N; Wilson, Dawn K et al. (2014) Feasibility and preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of an integrated health-mental health promotion program in school mental health services. Fam Community Health 37:19-30

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