No description available.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Walking groups are increasingly being set up to increase physical activity in sedentary population groups, but little is known about whether they are effective at doing so and how they work. The present thesis aims to build an evidence base of whether walking groups are effective at promoting public health and what factors account for their effectiveness. Methods: Four studies were conducted to address the overall aim. Study One: a systematic literature review with meta-analysis investigated whether interventions to promote walking in groups are effective at promoting physical activity. Study 2: a multi-perspective thematic analysis of interviews with walkers, walk leaders and walk co-ordinators, includingfollow up interviews with walkers, explored whether the needs and expectations of people who participated in walking groups were satisfied. The sample was gained from walking schemes run by Coventry City Council. Study Three: awalk-along interview study with walk leaders explored what and how environmental factors are seen to affect walking behaviours in groups. Study Four: a prospective cohort survey explored what theoretical constructspredict maintenance of attendance at walking groups in the Midlands. Results: Study One:interventions to promote walking in groups were found to be effective at promoting physical activity within efficacy studies targeting adults (d=0.42). Study Two: walkers reported that they joined walking groups to gain social and health benefits. Three months later the same walkers reported that they continued attending walking groups when their initial needs were satisfied by the other people in the group. Walk leaders and walk coordinators often acknowledged the same reasons but expressed lack of confidence to effectively address them. Study Three: walk leaders describedenvironmental factors that were important facilitators for behaviours within walking places. Lap walking places were reported to facilitate physical activity, park walking places were reported to facilitate social interactions and city centre walking places were reported to facilitate time efficient behaviours. Study Four: recovery self-efficacy and satisfaction with outcome expectancies and overall experiences within the groups were found to predict maintenance of attendance at walking groups. ix Conclusions:The results of this thesis suggest that walking groups increase physical activity. Furthermore, successful walking groups should include theory based techniques to promote behaviour change and social integration within participants. The outcomes of this thesiscan be used as an evidence base for developing, implementing and evaluating effective walking groups within the community.

published_or_final_version / Human Performance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study examined the reliability and the validity of the Exercise Suitability Scale (ESS). The ESS was a psychometric instrument developed to measure the suitability of four different forms of exercise (aerobics, bicycling, jogging, and swimming) for different individuals. Aspects of Exercise Suitability included in the ESS were ease, satisfaction, enjoyableness, fatigue, interest, convenience, comfort, safety, affordability, and time-involvement. Background information relating to the development of the ESS as well as methods and results of testing the instrument for reliability and validity were included in this study. Data from a student population were used for estimating the reliability and validity of the ESS. Reliability testing included computing inter-item and item-to-total correlation coefficients, Cronbach's alpha, and internal consistency coefficients (theta and omega) derived from factor analytic techniques. Several types of validity were assessed: content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity. Criterion-related validity was estimated by comparing scores on the ESS with information about participation in exercise. Multiple regression was also used to assess criterion-related validity. Principal components analysis was used to examine the construct and content validity of the ESS. Construct validity was also estimated by correlating ESS scale scores with a parallel instrumentation approach, a Q-Sort. Satisfactory reliability indices were obtained for all four ESS exercise scales. Criterion-related validity indices were also adequate. Factor analysis provided some evidence of content validity of the ESS, but provided little support for the construct validity of the ESS. Construct validity was supported, however by the convergence approach.

No description available.

This study was concerned with the differences of three surfaces (dirt, asphalt, or wood) on the performance of girls in the shuttle run.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University

Obesity is reported to be an epidemic (Cameron et al. 2003; Contaldo and Pasanisi 2003), particularly in western countries with 31 % of adults aged over 20 years in the US either overweight or obese in 1999-2000 (CDC 2004). A similar situation is reported in Australia with 16.7 % of the adult population (aged 18 or older) obese in 2001 and 34.4 % overweight (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2003). The US Surgeon General (1996) highlighted the link between increasing girth and decreasing activity levels and suggested that moderate intensity activity such as frequent walking could improve the health outcomes for overweight and obese people. Current public health recommendations emphasize the benefits of accumulating 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, such as walking, daily (Sallis et al. 2004). As walking for health reasons is important, factors that influence people to walk, in particular environmental influences, are the subject of a considerable research effort. A wide range of factors have been associated with walking behaviour by the public health professionals and transport and town planners, due to the recognition that neighbourhood design and land use may affect transport choice, such as automobile, public transit or walking/cycling (Saelens, Sallis and Frank 2003). A range of characteristics that are correlated with higher rates of walking review have been identified from the literature and grouped as the 3Ds (Cervero and Kockelman 1997) or proximity and connectivity (Sallis et al. 2004; Saelens, Sallis & Frank. 2003; Frank and Engelke 2001). Consistently, population density, land use mix, the street network and retail access are linked with definitions of neighbourhoods as either supporting walking behaviour or automobile dominated. This aim of this project is to build an objective walkability index based upon the physical environmental factors identified from the research and apply this to Adelaide, a large urban city in Australia using geographic information systems (GIS). Specifically, this study will build upon the work from the US (Frank et al. 2005) in delimiting cities into walk friendly or unfriendly, adapted to Australian data to provide the basis for an index that can be applied to Australian cities to highlight the variations across cities and between cities. / Thesis (M.A.)--School of Social Sciences, 2005.