ROLE OF THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIORS OF RURAL

描述(由申请人提供)：本研究旨在考察农村和城市居住的中学生在活动、身体活动机会和建筑环境方面的差异。这项研究将以社会-生态方法为指导，并将采用混合方法设计。社会生态方法关注的是支持健康行为的人际、组织、社区和环境因素。对于拟议的研究，将首先进行定性研究，从社区利益攸关方、父母及其子女那里收集关于一个农村社区和一个城市社区的体力活动机会和建筑环境方面的数据。这将为编制一份问卷调查提供信息，以评估适合这两个地点的建筑环境。其次，对同一农村(n=225)和城市(n=225)社区的450名中学生进行了客观测量的体力活动和心血管健康状况的量化研究。参与活动的儿童还将提供有关个人内部、个人间和社区层面(即，身体活动的机会和建筑环境的各个方面)因素的信息，这些因素是身体活动的障碍和机会。最后，将收集(使用地理信息系统收集的)关于体力活动机会的接近程度和建筑环境特征的客观数据。本研究将致力于两个主要目标：1)比较支持体力活动的社区环境的规划形式和建筑环境在不同城市地区和农村地区的不同；2)考察城市地区和农村地区中学生对体育活动的环境支持和建筑环境特征与心血管健康和体育活动的关系。拟议的工作与疾控中心与其核心任务有关的两个总体目标直接相关：1)生命各个阶段的健康人；2)通过提供与传播促进农村和城市环境中儿童干预的体育活动相关的信息，使健康地区的健康人健康。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present study seeks to examine differences in activity, opportunities for physical activity, and aspects of the built environment across rural and urban dwelling middle school children. This study will be guided by a social-ecological approach and will utilize a mixed-methods design. A social-ecological approach focuses attention on interpersonal, organizational, community, and environmental factors which support healthy behaviors. For the proposed research, a qualitative study will be conducted first which will collect data from community stakeholders, parents and their children regarding opportunities for physical activity and aspects of the built environment in one rural and one urban community. This will inform the construction of a questionnaire to assess the built environment which is appropriate for both locations. Secondly, a quantitative study will be conducted to collect objectively measured physical activity and cardiovascular fitness in 450 middle school children in the same rural (n = 225) and urban (n = 225) communities. Participating children will also provide information concerning intra-personal, inter-personal, and community level (i.e., opportunities for physical activity and aspects of the built environment) factors that are barriers and opportunities for physical activity. Finally, objective data (collected using GIS) concerning proximity to opportunities for physical activity and features of the built environment will be collected. This study will address two primary aims: 1) To compare aspects of the community environment in the form of programming and built environment that support physical activity which differ across middle school children living in an urbanized area and a rural county, and 2) To examine associations between environmental supports for physical activity and features of the built environment with cardiovascular fitness and physical activity in middle school children living in an urbanized area and a rural county. The proposed work is directly relevant to two of the CDC's overarching goals related to its core mission; 1) Healthy People in Every Stage of Life, 2) Healthy People in Healthy Places by providing information pertinent to the dissemination of physical activity promoting interventions for children in rural and urban environments.