Online Program

281146
A conceptual framework for community wayfinding


Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 10:40 a.m. - 10:50 a.m.

Lynda Anderson, PhD, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Ann Vandenberg, PhD, MPH, Center for Health in Aging, Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Rebecca H. Hunter, MEd, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Steven P. Hooker, PhD, SNHP Exercise & Wellness, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
Lucinda Bryant, PhD MSHA, Colorado School of Public Health, Department of Community and Behavioral Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO
William Satariano, PhD, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Basia Belza, PhD, RN, FAAN, Health Promotion Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
We present a new integrated conceptual framework of community wayfinding, defined as the process whereby people use environmental information to locate and find their way within familiar and unfamiliar settings. Our goal in introducing this framework is to raise awareness about the pivotal role of wayfinding as an aid to identifying factors that might serve as facilitators or barriers to action and to stimulate new integrative and interdisciplinary research and practice ideas. The framework incorporates key ecological perspectives from the person-environment fit models with elements adapted from the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, which includes all forms of human mobility, from walking to riding. Our model depicts the wayfinding process as dynamic, may change over time, and directly affects individual activities and social engagement. The conceptual framework includes environmental features, individual factors, user tools and technology, and individual-environment interaction that facilitate community wayfinding. The framework is consistent with the socio-ecological model used extensively by public health professionals to address the complex factors affecting health. This conceptual framework also sets the stage for subsequent presentations.

Learning Areas:

Other professions or practice related to public health
Program planning
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Identify the major components of a conceptual framework on wayfinding in teh community

Keyword(s): Aging

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Anderson is the Director of the Healthy Aging Program at CDC and has actively participated in studies in this area and is qualified to present on this topic.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.