142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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301035
Neighborhood Crime Moderates Effect of a Physical Activity Intervention in Children

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 9:10 AM - 9:30 AM

Stephanie Broyles, Ph.D. , Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Candice Myers, Ph.D. , Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Kathryn Drazba, M.P.H. , Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Arwen Marker , Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Robert Newton Jr., Ph.D. , Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background  Research suggests that neighborhood built and social environments are associated with physical activity (PA) in children and adults.  Few studies, however, have assessed the impact of the environment on the response to an intervention.  The purpose of this study was to investigate if neighborhood crime moderated the response to a pilot 12-week parent-targeted mobile-phone-based intervention to increase PA levels in children.

Methods  Sedentary children aged 6-10 years were randomly assigned to an intensive intervention group (IIG) or minimal intervention group (MIG).  The IIG received a daily step goal, behavioral strategies, and text messages designed to help parents increase their children’s PA, whereas the MIG received only a step goal.  Change in average daily number of steps from baseline was regressed against an index of neighborhood crime in a multilevel repeated-measures model.

Results  Twenty-seven children (mean age = 8.7 years; 55.6% female; 59.2% African American) completed the study. Higher neighborhood crime was associated with a lower response to the intervention (p for interaction = 0.03).  Children in the IIG living in low crime neighborhoods significantly increased their physical activity (5389±1019 steps/day; p<0.0001).  However, children in the IIG living in high crime neighborhoods, and children in the MIG living in either low or high crime neighborhoods did not increase their activity (1022±839, 1543±884, 1575±947, respectively; all p>0.1). 

Conclusion  Safer neighborhoods were associated with greater increases in PA in a pediatric intervention.  Future PA interventions may need to account for participants’ environments in their design and/or delivery.

Learning Areas:

Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe environmental barriers to children’s physical activity Compare the success of an intervention across different neighborhood environments Discuss the need to create environmentally-tailored physical activity interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-investigator on several research studies looking at environmental influences on health behaviors.
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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