Step It Up! Prioritization of Community Supports for Walking Among US Adults

Abstract

Purpose:

Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities (Call to Action) presents goals and supporting strategies to promote walking. We assessed the presence and prioritization of 4 community supports for walking related to the goals of the Call to Action from the perspective of US adults.

Design:

Cross-sectional web-based survey.

Setting:

US adults.

Participants:

A total of 4043 respondents.

Measures:

SummerStyles 2016 survey assessing the reported presence and prioritization of 4 community supports for walking.

Analysis:

Estimated prevalence of the presence of supports overall and by demographic characteristics, and prevalence and adjusted prevalence ratios of their prioritization.

Results:

The most commonly reported community supports for walking were access to walkable locations (46.5%) and safe streets (29.2%), followed by walking groups (12.9%) and promotional campaigns (9.6%). Access to walkable locations (60.0%) and safe streets (50.6%) were most often prioritized by respondents, followed by promotional campaigns (23.6%) and walking groups (18.8%). Many differences in prioritization by demographic characteristics remained significant after adjusting for presence and other demographic characteristics, such as increased prioritization of all supports with older age groups.

Conclusions:

Presence and prioritization of community supports for walking varied widely by type of support and by demographic characteristics. Opportunities exist to improve access and public sentiment related to these supports to promote walking in the United States.

Keywords

active living/built environment opportunity strategies health policy community specific settings walking physical activity

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