Local policy action to improve community food and physical activity environments: Results from a survey of California communities

Background: To understand how California communities are engaged in improving food and physical activity environments for obesity prevention, a survey was conducted to describe local nutrition/physical activity-related policy efforts. The survey was funded by California Department of Public Health's Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Methods: An on-line survey instrument was developed to explore progress on five priority policy areas: joint use, beverage environment, land use/transportation, healthy food retail, and safety/violence prevention. The survey was sent to members of the California Convergence - a network of communities forming a collective voice for policy and systems change to create health equity in neighborhoods through improved food and physical activity environments. Findings: The survey explored the status of policy development for the five priority issues. Respondents ranked the policy areas in terms of their organization's priorities and healthy food retail received the most number one rankings. Over 65% of respondents had worked on formal agreements/policies regarding healthy food retail and land use/transportation. Of those respondents that hadn't worked on formal agreements/policies in the priority areas, at least half of respondents were planning future policy work to address the priority areas. Conclusions: California communities are employing a variety of policy approaches to improve food and physical activity environments. Findings from this survey highlight the most common policy approaches, opportunities, strategies, and barriers to advancing policy, as well as areas of focus for future policy work.