142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Mapping local food and activity assets to visualize spatial relationships between obesity and attributes of rural place

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Deborah H. John, PhD , School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Public Health Faculty-Extension Family and Community Health, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Tammy Winfield, MS , Extension Family and Community Health, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Alinna Ghavami, BS , School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Katherine Gunter, PhD , School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
INTRODUCTION. Many risk factors have been associated with being obese, including U.S. rural residency; yet, recommended environmental strategies to prevent obesity are more applicable to non-rural settings. Rural residents report different lived experiences of local food and activity resources, which may relate with obesity risk. Reed and colleagues (2011) suggest CBPR approaches and asset evaluation to assure that strategies applied to rural settings are locally relevant and adequately resourced. The purpose of this CBPR project was to evaluate the environmental assets in six Oregon communities to explain the rural obesogenic context.

APPROACH. A multiple, community-level case study design was employed. Residents were trained and deployed to survey the food and activity resources within the rural community’s school district boundaries. Guided by a researcher-developed, pen-and-paper survey, GPS cameras were used to document and geo-locate all available food and activity assets. GIS data from GPS were transferred directly from community sites to campus using a data-transfer application, then attributed according to survey responses provided by community residents. Spatial relationships among (1) where people live and proximity to food and activity assets, and (2) food and activity assets and adult obesity prevalence (BMI) for each community were analyzed for strength and direction.

RESULTS. Maps visually representing quality of relationships among population distribution, attributed food and activity resources, and adult obesity prevalence were generated for each community case.

DISCUSSION. CBPR approaches, combined with innovative technology-based strategies, mobilized rural people to evaluate place-based assets and provided a visual, data-driven model of the rural obesogenic context.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Environmental health sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe a model for spatially defining and analyzing where rural people live with respect to available food and activity resources. Explain the use and application of GIS to explain and visualize how where people live affects their obesity risk and prevalence. Describe a new survey tool for measuring the rural food and activity environment and evaluating obesogenic disparities.

Keyword(s): Obesity, Environmental Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator of a federally funded grant focusing on environmental approaches to rural obesity prevention. Among my scientific interests has been CBPR approaches to assess food and activity environments and develop community-relevant strategies to improve contextual resources.
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.

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