Crime-related perceptions and walking for recreation inside and outside one's home neighborhood.

It is widely assumed crime and related concerns, including neighborhood incivilities and fear of crime, are barriers to physical activity (PA). Past studies reveal mixed evidence. Studies of impacts for crime-protective factors are less common but have similarly mixed results.

The Impact of Monetary Incentives on Delay Discounting Within a Year-Long Physical Activity Intervention.

Background: Delay discounting is the depreciation in a reward's perceived value as a function of the time until receipt. Monetary incentive programs that provide rewards contingent on meeting daily physical activity (PA) goals may change participants' delay discounting preferences.

Purpose: Determine if monetary incentives provided in close temporal proximity to meeting PA goals changed delay discounting, and if such changes mediated intervention effects.

A tale of many neighborhoods: Latent profile analysis to derive a national neighborhood typology for the US.

Introduction: Neighborhoods are complex and multi-faceted. Analytic strategies used to model neighborhoods should reflect this complexity, with the potential to better understand how neighborhood characteristics together impact health. We used latent profile analysis (LPA) to derive a residential neighborhood typology applicable for census tracts across the US.

The moderating impact of neighborhood walkability on mHealth interventions to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity for insufficiently active adults in a randomized trial.

Background: Ecological models suggest that interventions targeting specific behaviors are most effective when supported by the environment. This study prospectively examined the interactions between neighborhood walkability and an mHealth intervention in a large-scale, adequately powered trial to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Methods: Healthy, insufficiently active adults (N = 512) were recruited purposefully from census block groups ranked on walkability (high/low) and socioeconomic status (SES, high/low).

Perceptions of Existing School Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Materials Targeted to School Students by School Nutrition Professionals and Youth.

Little published research explores the perceptions of school nutrition professionals and youth regarding existing school nutrition marketing materials. A two-phased approach was taken to address this gap. In Phase 1, a national convenience sample of US school nutrition professionals ( = 1546; 89% female; 83.

: A Culturally Tailored Smartphone-Delivered Physical Activity Intervention for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction among African American Women.

This article reports the results of Smart Walk: a randomized pilot trial of an 8-month culturally tailored, smartphone-delivered physical activity (PA) intervention for African American women with obesity. Sixty participants (age range = 24−49 years; BMI range = 30−58 kg/m2) were randomized to the Smart Walk intervention (n = 30) or a wellness comparison intervention (n = 30). Results supported the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention, as demonstrated by participant retention (85% at 4 months and 78% at 8 months), Smart Walk app use, and intervention satisfaction (i.

Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Among Insufficiently Active African American Women With Obesity: Baseline Findings From Smart Walk.

Background: Low moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels and obesity are associated with increased cardiometabolic disease risk.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe MVPA and cardiometabolic risk characteristics of insufficiently active African American women with obesity (N = 60) enrolled in a culturally tailored MVPA intervention.

Methods: We assessed accelerometer-measured and self-reported MVPA, blood pressure, serum lipid profiles, cardiorespiratory fitness (VO 2 peak), and aortic pulse wave velocity.

Using open data and open-source software to develop spatial indicators of urban design and transport features for achieving healthy and sustainable cities.

Benchmarking and monitoring of urban design and transport features is crucial to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that either only allow between-city comparisons, or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. This study developed a reusable, open-source urban indicator computational framework using open data to enable consistent local and global comparative analyses.

Determining thresholds for spatial urban design and transport features that support walking to create healthy and sustainable cities: findings from the IPEN Adult study.

An essential characteristic of a healthy and sustainable city is a physically active population. Effective policies for healthy and sustainable cities require evidence-informed quantitative targets. We aimed to identify the minimum thresholds for urban design and transport features associated with two physical activity criteria: at least 80% probability of engaging in any walking for transport and WHO's target of at least 15% relative reduction in insufficient physical activity through walking.

Training Computers to See the Built Environment Related to Physical Activity: Detection of Microscale Walkability Features Using Computer Vision.

The study purpose was to train and validate a deep learning approach to detect microscale streetscape features related to pedestrian physical activity. This work innovates by combining computer vision techniques with Google Street View (GSV) images to overcome impediments to conducting audits (e.g.

Adaptive Goals and Reinforcement Timing to Increase Physical Activity in Adults: A Factorial Randomized Trial.

Introduction: Potent lifestyle interventions to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity are urgently needed for population-level chronic disease prevention. This trial tested the independent and joint effects of a mobile health system automating adaptive goal setting and immediate financial reinforcement for increasing daily walking among insufficiently active adults.

Study Design: Participants were randomized into a 2 (adaptive versus static goal setting) X 2 (immediate versus delayed financial incentive timing) condition factorial trial to increase walking.

Burstiness and Stochasticity in the Malleability of Physical Activity.

This study examined whether patterns of self-organization in physical activity (PA) predicted long-term success in a yearlong PA intervention. Increased moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) was targeted in insufficiently active adults (N = 512) via goal setting and financial reinforcement. The degree to which inverse power law distributions, which are reflective of self-organization, summarized (a) daily MVPA and (b) time elapsed between meeting daily goals (goal attainment interresponse times) was calculated.

Crime and physical activity measures from the SAFE and Fit Environments Study (SAFE): Psychometric properties across age groups.

Valid and reliable measures are needed to better understand the relationship between physical activity and crime. This paper provides a comprehensive psychometric evaluation of measures developed in the Safe and Fit Environments (SAFE) Study to assess a crime-PA conceptual framework. In addition to assessing the basic psychometric properties of each measure (e.

Assessing reinforcing versus aversive consequences in a real-time secondhand smoke intervention.

Few studies have examined the relative effectiveness of reinforcing versus aversive consequences at changing behavior in real-world environments. Real-time sensing devices makes it easier to investigate such questions, offering the potential to improve both intervention outcomes and theory. This research aims to describe the development of a real-time, operant theory-based secondhand smoke (SHS) intervention and compare the efficacy of aversive versus aversive plus reinforcement contingency systems.

Development of a Control-Oriented Model of Social Cognitive Theory for Optimized mHealth Behavioral Interventions.

Mobile health (mHealth) technologies are contributing to the increasing relevance of control engineering principles in understanding and improving health behaviors, such as physical activity. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), one of the most influential theories of health behavior, has been used as the conceptual basis for behavioral interventions for smoking cessation, weight management, and other health-related outcomes. This paper presents a control-oriented dynamical systems model of SCT based on fluid analogies that can be used in system identification and control design problems relevant to the design and analysis of .

Effects of Goal Type and Reinforcement Type on Self-Reported Domain-Specific Walking Among Inactive Adults: 2×2 Factorial Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: WalkIT Arizona was a 2×2 factorial trial examining the effects of goal type (adaptive versus static) and reinforcement type (immediate versus delayed) to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among insufficiently active adults. The 12-month intervention combined mobile health (mHealth) technology with behavioral strategies to test scalable population-health approaches to increasing MVPA. Self-reported physical activity provided domain-specific information to help contextualize the intervention effects.

Correction to: Variable Magnitude and Frequency Financial Reinforcement is Effective at Increasing Adults' Free-Living Physical Activity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40614-019-00241-y.].

Variable Magnitude and Frequency Financial Reinforcement is Effective at Increasing Adults' Free-Living Physical Activity.

Financial rewards can increase health behaviors, but little research has quantified the effects of different reinforcement schedules on this process. This analysis compares the average moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) associated with six distinct positive reinforcement schedules implemented within a physical activity promotion clinical trial. In this trial, participants ( = 512) wore an accelerometer for 1 year and were prescribed one of two types of MVPA goals: a static 30-min goal or an adaptive goal based on the MVPA produced over the previous 9 days.

Built Environment, Physical Activity, and Obesity: Findings from the International Physical Activity and Environment Network (IPEN) Adult Study.

Creating more physical activity-supportive built environments is recommended by the World Health Organization for controlling noncommunicable diseases. The IPEN (International Physical Activity and Environment Network) Adult Study was undertaken to provide international evidence on associations of built environments with physical activity and weight status in 12 countries on 5 continents ( > 14,000). This article presents reanalyzed data from eight primary papers to identify patterns of findings across studies.

Young adults' BMI and changes in romantic relationship status during the first semester of college.

Purpose: Identify how higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and weight discrimination are associated with romantic relationship formation and termination in young adults, and if the association was consistent for males and females.

Methods: First-year students (N = 1096) at entry to university (Time 1) provided BMI and self-reports of weight discrimination and romantic relationship status (in a relationship vs single); 550 were successfully resampled four months later (Time 2). Logistic generalized estimating equations (GEEs) examined if Time 1 relationship status was predicted by BMI and weight discrimination.

A Culturally Relevant Smartphone-Delivered Physical Activity Intervention for African American Women: Development and Initial Usability Tests of Smart Walk.

Background: Smart Walk is a culturally relevant, social cognitive theory-based, smartphone-delivered intervention designed to increase physical activity (PA) and reduce cardiometabolic disease risk among African American (AA) women.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the development and initial usability testing results of Smart Walk.

Methods: Smart Walk was developed in 5 phases.

Effects of Bluetooth-Enabled Desk Ellipticals on Office Work Performance: Rationale, Design, and Protocol for a Randomized Trial With Overweight and Obese Adults.

Background: Workplaces that provide opportunities for physical activity without requiring extra time for activity could help counteract the obesity epidemic. Desk ellipticals can contribute to activity-supportive workplace environments; however, the feasibility of engaging employees in pedaling ellipticals during simultaneous office work has not been well evaluated.

Objective: We aim to present the rationale and methods from an ongoing randomized trial with overweight and obese employees that will evaluate (1) the effects of pedaling a compact desk elliptical on work performance and (2) the influence of different incentive types and schedules on desk pedaling quantity.

Do associations of sex, age and education with transport and leisure-time physical activity differ across 17 cities in 12 countries?

Background: Leisure-time and transport activity domains are studied most often because they are considered more amenable to intervention, but to date evidence on these domains is limited. The aim of the present study was to examine patterns of socio-demographic correlates of adults' leisure-time and transport physical activity and how these associations varied across 17 cities in 12 countries.

Methods: Participants (N = 13,745) aged 18-66 years in the IPEN Adult study and with complete data on socio-demographic and self-reported physical activity characteristics were included.