An action-oriented public health framework to reduce financial strain and promote financial wellbeing in high-income countries.

Background: Perceived financial security impacts physical, mental, and social health and overall wellbeing at community and population levels. Public health action on this dynamic is even more critical now that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated financial strain and reduced financial wellbeing. Yet, public health literature on this topic is limited.

A Policy-Ready Public Health Guidebook of Strategies and Indicators to Promote Financial Well-Being and Address Financial Strain in Response to COVID-19.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the financial well-being of populations globally, escalating concerns about links with health care and overall well-being. Governments and organizations need to act quickly to protect population health relative to exacerbated financial strain. However, limited practice- and policy-relevant resources are available to guide action, particularly from a public health perspective, that is, targeting equity, social determinants of health, and health-in-all policies.

Perceived community environmental influences on eating behaviors: A Photovoice analysis.

People's perceptions of local food environments influence their abilities to eat healthily. PhotoVoice participants from four communities in Alberta, Canada took pictures of barriers and opportunities for healthy eating and shared their stories in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Using a socioecological framework, emergent themes were organized by type and size of environment.

Community Lenses Revealing the Role of Sociocultural Environment on Physical Activity.

Purpose: To identify perceptions of how sociocultural environment enabled and hindered physical activity (PA) participation.

Design: Community-based participatory research.

Setting: Two semirural and two urban communities located in Alberta, Canada.

Perceptions of Healthy Eating in Four Alberta Communities: A Photovoice Project.

Peoples' perceptions of healthy eating are influenced by the cultural context in which they occur. Despite this general acceptance by health practitioners and social scientists, studies suggest that there remains a relative homogeneity around peoples' perceptions that informs a hegemonic discourse around healthy eating. People often describe healthy eating in terms of learned information from sources that reflect societies' norms and values, such as the Canada Food Guide and the ubiquitous phrase "fruits and vegetables".

Understanding key influencers' attitudes and beliefs about healthy public policy change for obesity prevention.

Objective: As overweight and obesity is a risk factor for chronic diseases, the development of environmental and healthy public policy interventions across multiple sectors has been identified as a key strategy to address this issue.

Methods: In 2009, a survey was developed to assess the attitudes and beliefs regarding health promotion principles, and the priority and acceptability of policy actions to prevent obesity and chronic diseases, among key policy influencers in Alberta and Manitoba, Canada. Surveys were mailed to 1,765 key influencers from five settings: provincial government, municipal government, school boards, print media companies, and workplaces with greater than 500 employees.

How community environment shapes physical activity: perceptions revealed through the PhotoVoice method.

A growing body of evidence shows that community environment plays an important role in individuals' physical activity engagement. However, while attributes of the physical environment are widely investigated, sociocultural, political, and economic aspects of the environment are often neglected. This article helps to fill these knowledge gaps by providing a more comprehensive understanding of multiple dimensions of the community environment relative to physical activity.

Understanding older adults' usage of community green spaces in Taipei, Taiwan.

As the world's population ages, there is an increasing need for community environments to support physical activity and social connections for older adults. This exploratory study sought to better understand older adults' usage and perceptions of community green spaces in Taipei, Taiwan, through direct observations of seven green spaces and nineteen structured interviews. Descriptive statistics from observations using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) confirm that older adults use Taipei's parks extensively.

Examining aspects of the built environment: an evaluation of a community walking map project.

Objective: Interventions that address the built environment present an opportunity to affect behaviours such as physical activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a community walking map developed for eight neighbourhoods in the City of Edmonton (COE).

Method: A walking map developed in partnership with the COE's Walkable Initiative was distributed to 11,994 households across eight neighbourhoods in July 2010.

Photovoice as a Method for Revealing Community Perceptions of the Built and Social Environment.

Over the last number of years there has been growing interest in the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) for preventing and controlling complex public health problems. Photovoice is one of several qualitative methods utilized in CBPR, as it is a participatory method that has community participants use photography, and stories about their photographs, to identify and represent issues of importance to them. Over the past several years photovoice methodology has been frequently used to explore community health and social issues.