Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for obesity, diabetes and individuals' general health. Recently, there is a growing interest in using walking, the oldest and most basic physical activity (PA), to promote PA. Walking has proven to be both a healthful and popular mode of PA because it can be done almost anywhere and requires no special equipment (Lumsdon & Mitchell, 1999; Rafferty et al., 2002). However, according to a recent population survey (Eyler et al., 2003), only 34 percent of respondents were regular walkers (five times 30 minutes walking per week), 45.6 percent were occasional walkers (walked, but did not meet the PA recommendation) and 20.7 percent were never walkers. Similarly, children's daily walking has been significantly decreasing during the past several decades. Further, we only have limited knowledge on people's walking behaviors and related correlates. Many critical walking research questions need addressing, e.g., How many steps should a person walk a day? What is the best way to measure people's walking behavior? What is the impact of environmental changes on people's walking behavior? To address these issues, we are organizing a """"""""Walking for Health"""""""" conference focused on measurement and research issues. The conference will provide a forum to update and address critical measurement and research issues, as well as practical concerns, in walking and health research and practice. The conference is an extension and continuation of our 2003 measurement and aging conference, which was a great success. Key information of the conference is summarized below: Title: Walking for Health: Measurement and Research Issues and Challenges Date: October 13-15, 2005 Location: University of Illinois, Urbana, IL Type of participants: PA and health researchers and practitioners. N = 250 are expected.
Specific aims : 1. To provide updated and multidisciplinary views on walking and health research and practice; 2. To address critical measurement and research challenges in walking and health research and explore of potentials the latest technology and methods for the challenges; 3. To exchange the latest research progress in walking and health research; 4. To provide a training on measurement and statistical methods and programming skills. Topics covered: Very broad topics will be covered in three pre-conference sessions, two keynotes, 12 conference sections and discussions, and two poster sessions.
