Most Canadian adults do not meet recommended levels of physical activity; this phenomenon has persisted for many years and is associated with health concerns and chronic disease. These trends appear to affect Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel who have heightened mandates around physical activity. CAF operational mandates combined with these trends highlight the importance of addressing divides between expectation and reality. Traditionally the CAF has used approaches targeted to individuals to manage activity levels; however, there have been no studies exploring the relationship between the environment and activity levels among CAF personnel which has the potential to affect far more people. This dissertation examined built environments where CAF personnel live and explored the relationship between the built environment and active living among CAF personnel. There are two studies in this work. The first study developed a scale with and for the CAF and used this to examine the built environments where CAF personnel live. The results indicated a factor solution and demonstrated good-to-strong psychometric properties. Among the environments, it highlighted areas of strength and potential areas of improvement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the built environments where CAF personnel live. The second study used data from several sources at individual and neighbourhood levels to conduct a hierarchical linear model analysis to explore the relationship between the built environment and physical activity among CAF personnel. The findings revealed information about the different relationships between active living (measured by physical activity level) of CAF personnel and individual and neighbourhood characteristics. The findings in this dissertation provide novel evidence about the relationship of the built environment and active living among CAF personnel. The aim of this research was to provide evidence and information to decisionmakers that serves to meaningfully contribute to the pursuit of the overall health and wellbeing of CAF members. The findings provided meaningful information to help guide and inform Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services (CFMWS) policy, programming, and resource decisions that affect CAF personnel.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/43468 |
| Date | 13 April 2022 |
| Creators | Lafontaine, Sean |
| Contributors | Kristjansson, Elizabeth |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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