Introduction to the Active Living Research Supplement: Disparities in Environments and Policies that Support Active Living

Abstract

Health disparities may be defined as a difference in health condition or rank; lack of equality in opportunity, treatment or status; and an inequity that is unfair, unjust, unnecessary, and avoidable [1]. Disparities can occur by race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, geography, age, disability status, and sexual orientation. Health disparities are associated with a lesser quality of life and higher rates of morbidity and mortality among one group compared with another. During the past quarter century, a host of public and private initiatives have been implemented to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity (e.g., Healthy People 2010 and 2020 (www.healthypeople.gov), Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH; www.cdc.gov/reach), Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities, and Training (Project EXPORT; http://www.nimhd.nih.gov/our_programs/centerofexcellence.asp). Despite these efforts, health disparities persist and in some cases are increasing [2–4]. Active Living Research (ALR), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has, since 2001, funded research on environments and policies that support active living for children and families, providing evidence to RWJF's commitment to reverse childhood obesity by 2015, with an emphasis on groups at high risk [5]. Low physical activity levels are a major risk factor for nearly every leading cause of morbidity and mortality among adults in the United States [6]. Unfortunately, objective data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated that fewer than 5 % of US adults, <10 % of adolescents, and <50 % of children achieved sufficient levels of physical activity [7]. Though findings vary by self-report and objective measures [7–9], disparities in physical activity levels are evidenced by low participation among women/girls, racial/ethnic minority groups, those with low socioeconomic status, living in the Southeastern U.S., and with lower levels of education. Working to reduce and eliminate disparities in physical activity could contribute to reducing disparities in chronic diseases, but there are many questions about how to achieve equity in physical activity.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 9 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.