Physical activity is central to chronic disease prevention, yet less than half of adults and one quarter of youth achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Over the next five years, investigators from Arizona Prevention Research Center and the RAND Corporation propose to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s Physical Activity Policy and Evaluation Research Network Plus Coordinating Center. Specifically their collective efforts will encourage rigorous multi-site data collection efforts in a variety of settings, including community ones and the workplace, to advance physical activity policy research nationally and internationally. Such methods the center has significant expertise in, and will provide technical assistance for across the network based on consensus its stakeholders, include systematic direction observation assessments of physical activity, cost-effectiveness analytic approaches, and health impact assessments. Using these relatively inexpensive (per site) but robust methods for assessing physical activity policies leveraged across the network will yield a wealth of data critical to informing and comparing impactful physical activity policies. Additionally, through partnering with various regional, state and local stakeholders, we propose to establish the Arizona Physical Activity Policy Research Network (AzPAPRN). The proposed AzPAPRN will bring together stakeholders from state and local health departments, regional and local planners, researchers, and community advocates to identify and collect data related to determinants, processes and outcomes specific to Complete Streets and other pedestrian friendly policies. Included in the AZPAPRN will be initial research project to investigate perceptions of active transportation in predominantly low income, Mexican American/Mexican origin neighborhoods, with a focus on how design strategies such as complete streets can increase both rates of walking and perceptions of safety and comfort a critical local/regional public health challenge and one relevant to sound policy formation and city planning nationwide. The collective efforts of the coordinating center and its more regional/local components are directed toward the CDC s winnable battle of nutrition, physical activity and obesity, while contributing to meeting the objective of strategy five of the National Prevention Plan.
Over the next five years, the Arizona Prevention Research Center proposes to coordinate the Physical Activity Policy and Evaluation Research Network Plus Coordinating Center and to establish the Arizona Physical Activity Policy Research Network (AzPAPRN). The former objective will be achieved working closely with senior leadership from the RAND Corporation and CDC representatives as well as collaborating centers and other partners of the national network to advance the agenda for the development, implementation and evaluation of policy and environmental changes to increase daily physical activity. The proposed AzPAPRN will bring together stakeholders from state and local health departments, regional and local planners, researchers, and community advocates to identify and collect data related to determinants, processes and outcomes specific to Complete Streets and other pedestrian friendly policies. The collective efforts are directed toward the CDC s winnable battle of nutrition, physical activity and obesity, while contributing to meeting the objective of strategy five of the National Prevention Plan.
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