Impacts of zero-fare transit policy on health and social determinants: protocol for a natural experiment study.

Population-level efforts are needed to increase levels of physical activity and healthy eating to reduce and manage chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Interventions to increase public transit use may be one promising strategy, particularly for low-income communities or populations of color who are disproportionately burdened by health disparities and transportation barriers. This study employs a natural experiment design to evaluate the impacts of a citywide zero-fare transit policy in Kansas City, Missouri, on ridership and health indicators.

Associations of Neighborhood Food Retail Environments with Weight Status in a Regional Pediatric Health System.

There have been mixed findings on the relationships between childhood obesity and macroscale retail food environments. The current study investigates associations of the neighborhood retail food environment with changes in children's weight status over 6 years in the Kansas City Metropolitan area. Anthropometrics and home addresses were collected during routine well-child visits in a large pediatric hospital ( = 4493; >75% were Black or Latinx children).

Prospective associations of neighborhood healthy food access and walkability with weight status in a regional pediatric health system.

Background: Most neighborhood food and activity related environment research in children has been cross-sectional. A better understanding of prospective associations between these neighborhood environment factors and children's weight status can provide stronger evidence for informing interventions and policy. This study examined associations of baseline and changes in neighborhood healthy food access and walkability with changes in children's weight status over 5 years.

Neighborhood park access and park characteristics are associated with weight status in youth.

This study investigated park access and park quality in the context of childhood obesity. Participants were 20,638 children ages 6-17y from a large primary care health system. Analyses tested associations of park access and park characteristics with children's weight status, and sociodemographic interactions.

Low movement, deep-learned sitting patterns, and sedentary behavior in the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE).

Background/objectives: Sedentary behavior (SB) has both movement and postural components, but most SB research has only assessed low movement, especially in children. The purpose of this study was to compare estimates and health associations of SB when derived from a standard accelerometer cut-point, a novel sitting detection technique (CNN Hip Accelerometer Posture for Children; CHAP-Child), and both combined.

Methods: Data were from the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle, and the Environment (ISCOLE).

Validity of a Global Positioning System-Based Algorithm and Consumer Wearables for Classifying Active Trips in Children and Adults.

Objective: To investigate the convergent validity of a global positioning system (GPS)-based and two consumer-based measures with trip logs for classifying pedestrian, cycling, and vehicle trips in children and adults.

Methods: Participants ( = 34) wore a Qstarz GPS tracker, Fitbit Alta, and Garmin vivosmart 3 on multiple days and logged their outdoor pedestrian, cycling, and vehicle trips. Logged trips were compared with device-measured trips using the Personal Activity Location Measurement System (PALMS) GPS-based algorithms, Fitbit's SmartTrack, and Garmin's Move IQ.

CHAP-child: an open source method for estimating sit-to-stand transitions and sedentary bout patterns from hip accelerometers among children.

Background: Hip-worn accelerometer cut-points have poor validity for assessing children's sedentary time, which may partly explain the equivocal health associations shown in prior research. Improved processing/classification methods for these monitors would enrich the evidence base and inform the development of more effective public health guidelines. The present study aimed to develop and evaluate a novel computational method (CHAP-child) for classifying sedentary time from hip-worn accelerometer data.

Location-specific psychosocial and environmental correlates of physical activity and sedentary time in young adolescents: preliminary evidence for location-specific approaches from a cross-sectional observational study.

Background: A better understanding of the extent to which psychosocial and environmental correlates of physical activity are specific to locations would inform intervention optimization.

Purpose: To investigate cross-sectional associations of location-general and location-specific variables with physical activity and sedentary time in three common locations adolescents spend time.

Methods: Adolescents (N = 472,M = 14.

Neighborhood built environments and Hispanic/Latino adults' physical activity in the U.S.: The Hispanic community health study/study of Latinos community and surrounding areas study.

Despite experiencing health inequities, less is known about neighborhood environments and physical activity among Hispanic/Latino adults compared to other populations. We investigated this topic in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Hispanic/Latino adults in the San Diego, California area of the U.

Decreased Physical Activity Among Youth Resulting From COVID-19 Pandemic-Related School Closures: Natural Experimental Study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the closure of schools and may have inadvertently resulted in decreased physical activity for youth. Emerging evidence suggests that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic could have hastened the inactivity of youth, possibly due to a lack of structure outside of school and increased access to sedentary activities.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess changes in physical activity from pre-school closure (before the pandemic) to post-school closure (during the pandemic) among youth in spring 2020.

Adding Family Digital Supports to Classroom-Based Physical Activity Interventions to Target In- and Out-of-School Activity: An Evaluation of the Stay Active Intervention during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Remotely delivered interventions are promising for reaching large numbers of people, though few have targeted multiple levels of influence such as schools and families. This study evaluated two versions (arms) of a remotely delivered classroom-based physical activity (CBPA) intervention. One arm solely included remote CBPA; the other included remote CBPA and mobile health (mHealth) family supports.

Validity of Two Awake Wear-Time Classification Algorithms for activPAL in Youth, Adults, and Older Adults.

Background: The authors assessed agreement between participant diaries and two automated algorithms applied to activPAL (PAL Technologies Ltd, Glasgow, United Kingdom) data for classifying awake wear time in three age groups.

Methods: Study 1 involved 20 youth and 23 adults who, by protocol, removed the activPAL occasionally to create nonwear periods. Study 2 involved 744 older adults who wore the activPAL continuously.

Implementation contextual factors related to community-based active travel to school interventions: a mixed methods interview study.

Background: Active travel to school contributes to multiple physical and psychosocial benefits for youth, yet population rates of active travel to school are alarmingly low in the USA and many other countries. Though walking school bus interventions are effective for increasing rates of active travel to school and children's overall physical activity, uptake of such interventions has been low. The objective of this study was to conduct a mixed methods implementation evaluation to identify contextual factors that serve as barriers and facilitators among existing walking school bus programs.

Implementation of School Remote Drop-off Walking Programs: Results from Qualitative Interviews.

Background: Remote drop-off programs allow children living "unwalkable" distances from school to walk partway by being dropped off by personal vehicle or bus closer to the school, supporting physical activity and health. However, little evidence exists to guide implementation of such programs.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants from 7 remote drop-off programs to capture descriptive information and qualitative content ( barriers, facilitators, outcomes).

Investigating associations between physical activity-related neighborhood built environment features and child weight status to inform local practice.

Despite evidence of the importance of neighborhood built environment features in relation to physical activity and obesity, research has been limited in informing localized practice due to small sample sizes and limited geographic coverage. This demonstration study integrated data from a local pediatric health system with nationally available neighborhood built environment data to inform local decision making around neighborhood environments and childhood obesity. Height/weight from clinic visits and home neighborhood measures from the U.

Walking School Bus Programs: Implementation Factors, Implementation Outcomes, and Student Outcomes, 2017-2018.

Purpose And Objectives: Walking school bus programs increase children's physical activity through active travel to school; however, research to inform large-scale implementation of such programs is limited. We investigated contextual factors, implementation outcomes, and student outcomes in existing walking school bus programs in the United States and internationally.

Intervention Approach: Walking school bus programs involve a group of children walking to school together with an adult leader.

Differences in adolescent activity and dietary behaviors across home, school, and other locations warrant location-specific intervention approaches.

Background: Investigation of physical activity and dietary behaviors across locations can inform "setting-specific" health behavior interventions and improve understanding of contextual vulnerabilities to poor health. This study examined how physical activity, sedentary time, and dietary behaviors differed across home, school, and other locations in young adolescents.

Methods: Participants were adolescents aged 12-16 years from the Baltimore-Washington, DC and the Seattle areas from a larger cross-sectional study.