Reducing CVD risk/health disparities--active living

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and diabetes are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States, yet we are ineffective in preventing these costly and debilitating chronic conditions. Although programs and strategies to improve behavioral screening and counseling are needed, health care interventions alone are inadequate for preventing CVD and other chronic diseases. Consistent with social ecological models, which point to the importance of multi-level influences on health, research on the impact of the built environment on CVD risk behaviors offers a compelling case for building "active living" into neighborhoods as an effective community-based CVD prevention strategy. The Stapleton development is the largest urban renewal project currently ongoing in the United States. Located on the vacated Stapleton Airport grounds in Denver, Stapleton's redevelopment began in 2001 by Forest City Enterprises, the developer hired to lead this multi-decade effort. Its 4,700 acres (of which more than one third is dedicated to green space) are designed as mixed-use neighborhoods to enhance active living with pocket parks, walking and bicycle trails and wide sidewalks and its community recreation facilities. Currently Stapleton has almost 1,500 families, and in 10 years will be home to over 30,000 residents. Importantly, its close proximity to adjacent neighborhoods that are racially and ethnically diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged, offers access to active living amenities to residents who previously experienced over 40 years of airport noise, traffic and pollution. This development of a new urban enclave with an established built environment is an unusual circumstance that presents exceptional opportunities for learning about community development and its impact on health and health disparities both in the new community and in the established communities surrounding it. Our proposed project fits with recent recommendations to increase knowledge of the impacts of population-based approaches for preventing cardiovascular disease. We will use community- and culturally-relevant data collection methods to understand how to increase use of Stapleton's active living environment to improve levels of physical activity and cardiovascular risk by residents of Stapleton and the diverse communities adjacent to it. An important resource for this research will be a community-based participatory research (CBPR) process that involves diverse residents of Stapleton and surrounding neighborhoods (hereinafter called the Greater Stapleton Community) in addressing these complex issues. Although Stapleton included community input early in its planning process, this project's establishment of a formalized CBPR process creates a more community-wide approach for building a diverse and "permeable" active living community.