Journal of Healthy Eating and Active Living

Implementing Quick-Build Projects to Support Physical Activity in Hawai‘i Communities: Lessons Learned about Community Engagement

L. Brooke Keliikoa — 2025-10-27

Quick-build projects aim to improve the safety and accessibility of streets, parks, and other public spaces using temporary, lower-cost materials. Community engagement is critical to ensuring quick-builds address community needs and fit community context. Between 2019-2021, 13 quick-build projects were implemented in Hawai‘i communities to support walking, rolling, bicycling, skateboarding, and park activation. The quick-build changes included creating curb extensions painted with street artwork and adding park features. This process evaluation study sought to understand how multisector partners engaged community members in quick-build projects and what they learned. The evaluation team conducted semi-structured interviews in 2021 with a purposive sample of 14 participants. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, then iteratively coded by two evaluators. Preliminary findings underwent a member-checking process with participants. Evaluation participants implemented a variety of community engagement activities tailored to the quick-build project’s goal, features, timeline, resources, and partners. Overall, community engagement efforts focused on the early planning and design phases of quick-build projects. Lessons learned about community engagement centered on the amount of time to build relationships, the importance of partnerships, ensuring any art component resonated with communities, involving youth, framing the quick-build as temporary and reversible, budgeting for community engagement resources, connecting through existing community structures, and keeping community volunteers safe. Community members need to be more meaningfully engaged in post-implementation efforts such as maintenance, evaluation, and deciding next steps.

Rural Physical Activity in the Mississippi Delta: the moderating influence of stray dogs

Jessica Stroope — 2025-10-27

The presence of stray dogs is a perceived barrier that may lead to lower physical activity levels, especially in rural areas. Gender may play a role in this relationship. Linear regression was used to assess relationships between physical activity days per week, stray dogs, and gender using the Rural Eastern Louisiana Food Accessibility and Active Transportation survey (N = 677). Potentially confounding covariates were controlled in analyses, including race, education, age, self-rated health, and poverty. Findings revealed that gender but not stray dogs was related to physical activity, with men averaging one more physical activity day per week than women. However, men with concerns about stray dogs reported significantly fewer physical activity days per week compared to men without such concerns. Reported physical activity days per week for women did not differ according to stray dog concerns. Rural men may be more impacted by concerns about stray dogs because they may be more likely to engage in solitary neighborhood-based physical activity. Policy implications include enforcement of leash laws and mobile spay/neuter clinic access in rural communities. Mitigating the threat of loose dogs would remove a barrier to physical activity in rural communities and help to ameliorate rural health disparities, especially among men.

Perceived Transit-Induced Gentrification, Walkability and Crime: An Examination of the Purple Line Light Rail Transit in Prince George’s County, Maryland

Shadi Omidvar Tehrani — 2025-10-27

This study investigates perceived transit-induced gentrification (TIG) in anticipation of the Maryland Purple Line light rail transit among residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, and its associations with walkability and crime. In spring 2021, Wave I of the GENTS Study collected data through an online questionnaire on residents’ perceptions of the Purple Line and related neighborhood factors. Using exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression, we examined the relationships between perceived TIG, walkability, and crime. In a sample of 465 respondents, primarily Black/African American (61%) and White (28%), walkability factors such as accessibility and a pedestrian-friendly environment were significantly associated with positive TIG perceptions. In contrast, concerns about house break-ins, purchasing a gun, and walking barriers were linked to negative TIG perceptions. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics between urban development, gentrification, and social determinants of health.

Housing Influences on Active Aging: Perspectives from African Immigrant Elders in Chicago's South Side

Omotayo Onanuga — 2025-10-27

The quality of housing and the surrounding environment significantly impact the health and well-being of older adults, particularly among immigrant populations. Inadequate or unsuitable housing can contribute to health issues such as mobility limitations, social isolation, and stress, which can negatively impact lifestyle and overall health outcomes. Active aging holds promise in enhancing health outcomes, however, its relevance for immigrants of color who mostly live in poor urban housing environment is unexplored. This study examines the impact of housing environments on the lifestyle of older adult African immigrants in the United States. Employing grounded theory qualitative methodology, this study collected interview data from 30 older adult African immigrants (50+) in diverse housing environments in Chicago's south side. To enhance data triangulation, observation methods using Google Earth images, on-site photos, and researcher sketches were utilized alongside participant narratives. Interview recordings were transcribed using NVivo software, cross-checked, and manually corrected for linguistic nuances or occasional native language use before coding. Four main themes were identified: perceived physical activity, neighborhood factors, residential environment factors, and active social lifestyles. Understanding the relationship between housing environments and active aging is crucial for designing effective interventions to enhance lifestyle of aging African diaspora immigrants in the United States. However, obtaining population-specific data is essential to tailor these interventions to the unique needs of individuals within their specific housing environments.

The Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network: Evaluation Using CDC’s Science Impact Framework

Stephenie Lemon — 2025-10-27

The Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded the Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN) from 2019-2024 to address critical knowledge and translation gaps related to physical activity policy research, with an emphasis on supporting and advancing research and practice on the Guide to Community Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendations to advance physical activity related to community design and parks and green spaces. During the 2019-2024 period, PAPREN grew to include over 1,000 members from sectors such as public health, social and behavioral sciences, transportation, planning, and parks and recreation. PAPREN also included academics, practitioners, and government employees. Using an adapted version of CDC’s Science Impact Framework (SIF), we evaluated PAPREN’s influence on five domains: creating awareness, catalyzing action, disseminating science, effecting change and shaping the future using network tracking activities and a member survey (n=95). Results indicated that PAPREN is having an impact in creating awareness through its communications and presentations infrastructure, catalyzing action through projects and other initiatives led by its topic-focused Work Groups, disseminating science by helping members stay informed about the field and disseminating resources and shaping the future by informing members’ work and shaping the next generation of researchers. An area for growth relates to effecting change by fostering more opportunities for networking and promoting professional development. PAPREN can serve as a model for other collaborative, multi-sectoral networks designed to increase applied research and to use research findings to inform practice.