Laura M. Nieuwendyk

Understanding Older Adults’ Usage of Community Green Spaces in Taipei, Taiwan

As the world’s population ages, there is an increasing need for community environments to support physical activity and social connections for older adults. This exploratory study sought to better understand older adults’ usage and perceptions of community green spaces in Taipei, Taiwan, through direct observations of seven green spaces and nineteen structured interviews. Descriptive statistics from observations using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) confirm that older adults use Taipei’s parks extensively. Our analyses of interviews support the following recommendations for age-friendly active living initiatives for older adults: make green spaces accessible to older adults; organize a variety of structured activities that appeal to older adults particularly in the morning; equip green spaces for age-appropriate physical activity; and, promote the health advantages of green spaces to older adults.

Community Health and the Built Environment: examining place in a Canadian chronic disease prevention project

The Community Health and the Built Environment (CHBE) project investigated the role of place in interventions for chronic disease prevention in order to identify contextual factors that may foster or inhibit intervention success. This paper presents a project model comprising objective-outsider and subjective-insider perspectives in a multi-method, community-based participatory research approach with an emphasis on knowledge exchange. The collaborative process generated valuable lessons concerning effective conduct of community-based research. The CHBE project model contributes a mechanism for investigating how place influences health behaviours and the outcomes of health promotion interventions.

Perceived community environmental influences on eating behaviors: A Photovoice analysis

People’s perceptions of local food environments influence their abilities to eat healthily. PhotoVoice participants from four communities in Alberta, Canada took pictures of barriers and opportunities for healthy eating and shared their stories in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Using a socioecological framework, emergent themes were organized by type and size of environment. Findings show that, while availability and access to food outlets influence healthy eating practices, these factors may be eclipsed by other non-physical environmental considerations, such as food regulations and sociocultural preferences. This study identifies a set of meta-themes that summarize and illustrate the interrelationships between environmental attributes, people’s perceptions, and eating behaviors: a) availability and accessibility are interrelated and only part of the healthy eating equation; b) local food is synonymous with healthy eating; c) local food places for healthy eating help define community identity; d) communal dining (commensality) does not necessarily mean healthy eating; e) rewarding an achievement or celebrating special occasions with highly processed foods is socially accepted; f) food costs seemed to be driving forces in food decisions; g) macro-environmental influences are latent in food decisions. Recognizing the interrelationship among multiple environmental factors may help efforts to design effective community-based interventions and address knowledge gaps on how sociocultural, economic, and political environments intersect with physical worlds.

Understanding key influencers' attitudes and beliefs about healthy public policy change for obesity prevention

As overweight and obesity is a risk factor for chronic diseases, the development of environmental and healthy public policy interventions across multiple sectors has been identified as a key strategy to address this issue.

Universal Design for the rural walks of life: operationalizing walkability in Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada

Abstract Many Canadians have low levels of physical activity, including walking. One public health response is to improve opportunities for walking, or walkability, by changing community built environments. While urban walkability research is expanding, it does not readily apply to smaller, rural communities, leaving a significant knowledge gap. This participatory research project operationalized rural walkability using Universal Design principles to promote walking in a vibrant rural community. A literature review examining rural walkability supplemented local data from a related study. Simultaneously, local partners were engaged to operationalize walkability and iteratively develop a walking map responsive to community priorities of inclusivity and community engagement. The walkability literature was severely limited in evidence and theory for rural settings; conventional urban walkability constructs did not fit the geography, degree of rural-ness, nor primary purposes of walking by residents. This challenged the cogency of current rationales for walkability as a socio-structural response to the obesity epidemic, which may undervalue the individual benefits and public good inherent to walking and equitable supports for walkability. The Bonnyville Community Walking Map was developed using Universal Design principles, providing a tool for all residents, including seniors and others with limited mobility. Consideration of Universal Design can enhance equity and transferability of walkability research across settings, and prompt reconsideration of walkability as access to pedestrian spaces for embodied and vulnerable pedestrians. This research is among the earliest in Canada to investigate theoretical and empirical bases for operationalizing walkability in rural settings in broader efforts to foster health-promoting community environments.

Quantifying the association between measured features of the built environment and individual health outcomes: A cross-community comparison

| 157 schools. Rural schools had less favourable built environments than urban schools. conclusions: Canadian children, particularly those from rural areas and those attending secondary