Physical Activity and the Regeneration of Connswater (the PARC Study)
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Biological Sciences
Abstract
Increasing participation in physical activity has great potential for improving public health. The trends towards sedentary living have their origins in changes at community and societal levels indicative of shifting cultural norms. A ?natural experiment? afforded by a major urban regeneration Big Lottery Award will be used to study the impact of environmental change and the creation of an urban ?Greenway? in East Belfast, on physical activity levels and the social capital for further public health gain . A multi-disciplinary research team will first engage with the local community to shape the detailed research plans and devise appropriate social marketing material for the Greenway. Members of the local community and East Belfast Partnership will join the researchers in monitoring the project over its five years and in preparing final evaluation reports. The engagement of the research team from the UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health (NI) with key stakeholders and decision makers will enhance the translation of findings into more informed policy and practice.
Technical Summary
The Connswater Community Greenway (CCG) is one of three 2008 Big Lottery Living Landmarks awards and is a major environmental improvement project in East Belfast, which will connect 379 acres of public open space, building 43 bridges and 19kms of cycle and walkways. Around 40,000 people, most from inner city deprived neighbourhoods and living adjacent to CCG, will, by 2013, benefit from a better living environment, opportunities for leisure, exercise, recreation and support for healthier lifestyles.
We will use the opportunity afforded by this ?natural experiment? to design a systems-based approach to the promotion of physical activity (PA) and thereby determine the ability of individual, community and organizational networks and of the characteristics of the local environment to change behaviours. The cost effectiveness of this socio-ecological approach will also be assessed.
Using a PRECEDE-PROCEDE framework, a multi-stakeholder team will first engage with the targeted communities and devise a logic model for a suite of PA promotion interventions involving statutory and voluntary bodies in the CCG area. A baseline survey will be conducted of a random sample of households in the electoral wards of the CCG area before the urban regeneration project begins. This will assess attitudes to and levels of habitual physical activity, perceptions of the characteristics of the environment associated with active travel and physical activity, individual and social networks and their potential influence on their behaviour. A contemporaneous survey by SportNI of PA behaviours across Northern Ireland will generate a number of ?comparator? communities with which CCG will be compared. Process measures to judge the ?dose?, fidelity and costs of implementing interventions will include an assessment of the changes in ?walkability?, awareness and take-up of PA promoting interventions, the trends and patterns of activity of novel PA ?loyalty? scheme users, and the use made of new environmental amenities or different types of transport. These will be enriched by a qualitative and quantitative study of the voluntary and statutory stakeholder partnerships during the implementation period (2009-2013). A repeat survey of CCG households, more than six months after the completion of the Connswater Greenway construction will be timed to coincide with a further province wide survey of physical activity behaviours conducted by SportNI.
Primary endpoints will be the change in the proportion of residents in the CCG area who achieve recommended levels of PA (150mins per week), over the period 2009-2013, compared to other parts of Belfast and Northern Ireland.
We will use the opportunity afforded by this ?natural experiment? to design a systems-based approach to the promotion of physical activity (PA) and thereby determine the ability of individual, community and organizational networks and of the characteristics of the local environment to change behaviours. The cost effectiveness of this socio-ecological approach will also be assessed.
Using a PRECEDE-PROCEDE framework, a multi-stakeholder team will first engage with the targeted communities and devise a logic model for a suite of PA promotion interventions involving statutory and voluntary bodies in the CCG area. A baseline survey will be conducted of a random sample of households in the electoral wards of the CCG area before the urban regeneration project begins. This will assess attitudes to and levels of habitual physical activity, perceptions of the characteristics of the environment associated with active travel and physical activity, individual and social networks and their potential influence on their behaviour. A contemporaneous survey by SportNI of PA behaviours across Northern Ireland will generate a number of ?comparator? communities with which CCG will be compared. Process measures to judge the ?dose?, fidelity and costs of implementing interventions will include an assessment of the changes in ?walkability?, awareness and take-up of PA promoting interventions, the trends and patterns of activity of novel PA ?loyalty? scheme users, and the use made of new environmental amenities or different types of transport. These will be enriched by a qualitative and quantitative study of the voluntary and statutory stakeholder partnerships during the implementation period (2009-2013). A repeat survey of CCG households, more than six months after the completion of the Connswater Greenway construction will be timed to coincide with a further province wide survey of physical activity behaviours conducted by SportNI.
Primary endpoints will be the change in the proportion of residents in the CCG area who achieve recommended levels of PA (150mins per week), over the period 2009-2013, compared to other parts of Belfast and Northern Ireland.
