Isanti County active living: measuring change in perception and behavior.

Background: In 2003, Isanti County MN received an Active Living by Design grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase physical activity through environmental changes.

Purpose: The goal of the Isanti County Active Living project was to provide leadership in promoting environments that offer choices for active living and increase the physical activity of community members. The project conducted two surveys to examine whether project activities had helped in shaping levels of physical activity and perceptions of the built environment.

Methods: The project conducted a mail survey with a random sample of Isanti County adult residents in February-March 2005 and repeated this survey in August-December 2008, using the same methodology for survey administration.

Results: There was a significant increase between 2005 and 2008 in the percentage of Isanti County adults who reported participating in moderate physical activity. In contrast, there was no change in the percentage of Minnesota adults as a whole who reported comparable amounts of moderate physical activity between 2005 and 2007. On measures of the physical environment, there was a significant increase between 2005 and 2008 in the percentage of residents who perceive that their neighborhood encourages physical activity.

Conclusions: The Isanti County Active Living project likely contributed to the increase in moderate physical activity in Isanti County as well as to perceptions of a safe environment conducive to physical activity.