Physical Activity Update | Eat Smart, Move More…NC

The Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch welcomed David Hall as the new Faithful Families Eating Smart Moving More Program Coordinator. The Faithful Families Program is a joint partnership effort between NC Cooperative Extension’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and the NC Division of Public Health, with grant funding provided from Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

David has both a Masters in Public Health and a Masters of Divinity. He has previously served as Health Promotion Coordinator in both Orange and Henderson Counties, working with Faith Communities to promote healthy behaviors.

Programs, Projects and Initiatives

Formation of New Physical Activity Special Interest Group Within the American Public Health Association

Physical inactivity is the second actual leading cause of death in the U.S., yet there is not a clearly identifiable “home” for Physical Activity (PA) researchers, practitioners, advocates, and partners within the world’s largest public health professional organization - the American Public Health Association (APHA). However, there is now a strong leadership team in place to pave the way for the formation of a new APHA PA Special Interest Group (SPIG) that will provide a visible and credible “home” for those with a primary interest in PA science, practice, and policy.

To be formally recognized by APHA as a SPIG, we need to recruit at least 100 new APHA members who will select the PA SPIG as their primary affiliation. That’s where you come in. We invite you to join us in our efforts to elevate PA as a priority within APHA, and to provide PA professionals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to address sedentary behavior and its detrimental consequences. We also call on persons from diverse disciplines (e.g., physical education/kinesiology, transportation, land use planning, commercial fitness industry, medicine, nursing, clinical exercise physiology, and athletic training) to take this opportunity to align their interests and efforts with those from the public health arena. Your unique expertise and perspectives will enhance our capacity.

If you are willing to commit to becoming either a professional or student member of APHA and the PA SPIG, click on the following link to access the membership commitment form. Current unaffiliated APHA members are also invited to indicate your willingness to designate the PA SPIG as your primary affiliation.

Simply download the form, sign and date it, and fax it to Dr. Justin Moore at (252) 744-4008. More than one person may sign the form, so please help us by spreading the word. Once enough membership commitments are received, we will submit the formal SPIG application to APHA for review and approval. When SPIG approval has been granted, we will notify you that it is time to officially join APHA.

There is no need to complete a membership application or provide membership dues at this time. We only need your firm commitment right now. If you have any questions or need assistance, you may contact Dr. Moore via email.

If you are a member of APHA, but you have designated another SPIG as your primary affiliation, we welcome you to indicate the PA SPIG as a secondary affiliation when formal SPIG approval has been granted. There is no need to do that at this time.

As Dr. James Sallis, Professor, and Director of the Active Living Research Program Office at San Diego State University, recently stated, “APHA needs us!” We look forward to hearing from many of you as we work towards making the PA SPIG a reality. For more information click here.

(From [Enewsletter] NCPPA News 3/6/08)

Success Stories

Circuit Training at Rockingham Community College

Ann Tanner and Lynne Haynes from Rockingham Community College (RCC) attended the Worksite Wellness Toolkit Training Workshop in May 2006 and started a wellness program for their fellow employees.

As part of the RCC worksite wellness program, Lynne Haynes used her skills as a physical activity educator to teach circuit training to interested staff and faculty. The circuit training sessions were offered two days per week for 12 weeks. All employees were required to sign a liability waiver form prior to participation.

Circuit training is an excellent choice of exercise for busy employees. In one 30-minute circuit training session many components of physical fitness can be addressed such as muscular endurance, muscle strength, cardio-respiratory endurance, flexibility and balance. It is great for weight loss. Also, all fitness levels can be accommodated in one class as participants are encouraged to do only as little or as much as they are able. Circuit training stations may be set up in places such as break rooms, gyms or vacant rooms. The circuit training session at RCC involved eight to 15 stations. Participants rotated through stations, each targeting a different muscle group. Between each station participants performed a burst of aerobic activity.
For example, a station for performing chest press on a yoga ball is followed by jogging forward while moving hands overhead and then out to the side. This process is repeated until all stations are completed.

By using simple items like dumbbells, yoga balls, resistance tubing and weight sticks, participants learned how inexpensively a similar circuit could be set up at home. A second training session was offered from October to December 2007, and the first session for 2008 is planned from January to March.

Read the whole story here.

Featured Resources and Research

The National Center for SRTS Makes New Resources Available for Evaluation, Research and Media Outreach

The National Center for Safe Routes to School recently released new resources to assist local communities in evaluating their Safe Routes to School programs. The new section includes a step-by-step process for conducting an evaluation with an accompanying worksheet for program implementers to organize their program information for each step. It also reviews the benefits of evaluation and how the timing of evaluation corresponds to the life of a SRTS program.

Readers are also given an overview of commonly used ways to collect data, including the standardized data collection forms developed by the Center in 2007. The Student Travel Tally is used to identify frequency of various transportation modes for travel to school. The Parent Survey, also available in a Spanish-language version, measures parent attitudes that may influence whether children are allowed to walk or bicycle to school.

These new resources are a component of a comprehensive national research program launched by the Center to determine the impact of Safe Routes to School programs. The research program will result in the collection of nationwide SRTS-related data and the identification of effective SRTS strategies. Elements of the research program include: Standardized Data Collection Forms, National SRTS Tracking Database, NCSRTS Tracking Reports, SRTS Strategy Evaluation and Safety Index Development.

Safe Routes to School programs now have a new resource to help promote walking and bicycling for children.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School has also launched the Media and Visibility module within the SRTS Guide. The new module, which expands the already comprehensive Web-based SRTS manual, offers programs guidance and tools for expanding their media outreach. The module offers the basics of working with the news media, tips for conducting interviews, ideas for securing program spokespeople and guidance on increasing the newsworthiness of an SRTS program.

The Center has launched the Evaluation section within the SRTS Guide available here.

For more information on the media and visibility module click here.

Active Living Research Call for Proposals Released

Proposal Deadline: May 14, 2008

Active Living Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This call for proposals is the first to reflect a new emphasis for Active Living Research. Their program will now focus on supporting research to inform policy and environmental strategies for increasing physical activity among children and adolescents, decreasing their sedentary behaviors and preventing obesity. Findings are expected to advance RWJF’s efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

RWJF will place special emphasis on strategies with the potential to reach racial/ethnic populations and children living in low-income communities who are at highest risk for obesity. Proposed studies must address one of the topics identified in the call for proposals.

For more details and to apply click here.

If you have any questions about the proposal submission process, please contact Amanda Wilson, Research Coordinator, via email or 619-260-5538.

(From Safe Routes to School E-News: March 2008)

Legislation

Deb Hubsmith Requested to Supply Written Testimony to Congress

The Testimony features the need for health performance measures in the transportation bill. Congressman James Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, invited Deb Hubsmith, Director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, to provide written testimony on the “Transportation for Tomorrow” report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the House of Representatives.

While the Report aimed to achieve a new transportation vision for America, it unfortunately omitted walking and bicycling as modes of transportation, and it did not evaluate or note the considerable financial and health impacts of the surface transportation system’s built environment on physical inactivity. This is a major flaw with the Report that should not be overlooked in its analysis by Congress.

Deb points out in her testimony that there are numerous studies that cite the relationship between the built environment and public health. Doctors and medical institutions increasingly indicate that a built environment that is hostile to walking and bicycling is an important contributing factor leading to sedentary lifestyles and increases in obesity. Today in America, 67 percent of adults are overweight or obese and nearly 1/3 of all children are overweight or obese. In addition, childhood obesity has increased nearly five-fold for children aged 6-11 over the past 40 years, and doctors state that this current generation might be the first in more than 200 years to live shorter live spans than their parents.

Click here to see Deb’s full written testimony.

(From Safe Routes to School E-News: March 2008)

Harkin Bill Would Require National Exercise Guidelines

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced legislation, S. 2748, that would establish national physical activity guidelines for Americans of all ages and ability levels. The Physical Activities Guidelines for Americans Act would direct the HHS to prepare and promote physical activity guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence, similar to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) co-sponsored the legislation. A similar bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Zach Wamp (R-TN).

The bill is supported by over 30 organizations including ADA, the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine.

“Many Americans are unaware of just how much exercise they should be getting,” said Senator Harkin. “These guidelines will promote a healthier lifestyle and improve fitness among all age groups. This is a step towards combating the obesity epidemic and the onslaught of chronic disease that is causing our health care costs to skyrocket.”

Research clearly demonstrates the importance of physical activity in preventing disease and approximately 250,000 premature deaths each year can be attributed to lifestyles that lack physical activity. More than half of Americans do not get enough daily exercise to maintain proper health.

S. 2748 would formalize a process already underway. HHS is currently working on development of Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which will be issued in late 2008. To read about the proposed bill click here.

Grants

Women’s Sports Foundation Seeks Applicants for Ambassador Team Awards

Deadline for Applications: July 18, 2008

The Women’s Sports Foundation’s Ambassador Team Awards program will provide a total of $50,000 in grants to teams of female high school students that demonstrate leadership in their communities by inspiring girls to get involved in sports and physical activity. Teams will create their own projects designed to get girls in their local community to be physically active. To be eligible, teams must be school, amateur, community, and/or nonprofit affiliated teams whose members are all of the following: female; enrolled in 9th-12th grade; and residents of the United States, its territories, or protectorates. Twenty teams will be awarded $2,500 each. Team awards are to be used for equipment, apparel, travel, or training costs for the team.

Prizes will be made payable to the school, nonprofit institution, or 501(c),(3) organization. For more information click here.

Smart Growth Implementation Assistance

EPA is soliciting applications from communities that want help with either policy analysis or public participatory processes. Selected communities will receive assistance in the form of a multi-day visit from a team of experts organized by EPA and other national partners to work with local leaders. EPA typically helps 4 to 5 communities each year through the SGIA program.

EPA also offers tools for Smart Growth such as scorecards, examples of codes that support smart growth development, and sample requests for proposals.

Applications for implementation assistance will be accepted until May 8, 2009. For more information on tools above and for application materials click here

(From CDC/NSPAPPH Physical Activity One-Way Listserv, March 6, 2008)

Training and Professional Development

The Physical Activity and Public Health Course

September 16-24, 2008

Park City, Utah

The Physical Activity and Public Health Course (PAPH), sponsored by the
University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is entering its 14th year of successful training for researchers and public health practitioners.

The PAPH course offerings feature an 8-day Postgraduate Course on
Research Directions and Strategies and a 6-day Practitioner’s Course on Community Interventions. The faculty for the courses is composed of nationally recognized experts in public health research and practice.

The Research Course serves post-doctoral personnel and is designed to develop research competencies related to physical activity and public health. The Practitioner’s Course is for those professionally involved or interested in community-based initiatives to promote physical activity. Approximately 25 fellows are accepted for each course. Criteria for acceptance include educational background, experience, professional position, and potential to enhance public health research and practice.

The 2008 Physical Activity and Public Health Courses will be held
September 16-24, 2008 at The Lodge at the Mountain Village in Park City,
UT. For more information click here or contact Janna Borden
at (803) 576-6050 or via email.