|
|
Community and Economic Development – Blog by UNC School of Government https://ced.sog.unc.edu Heart Healthy Lenoir — Project UpdateBy CED Guest AuthorPublished December 16, 2010
The Heart Healthy Lenoir Project is a five-year, NIH-funded project to reduce heart disease risk among residents of Lenoir County, North Carolina. Of all North Carolina counties, Lenoir County has one of the highest heart disease and stroke death rates. Heart Healthy Lenoir is a collaborative project among researchers from East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One component of the Heart Healthy Lenoir Project is to learn more about community-level supports for and barriers to healthy lifestyles among Lenoir County residents. Health promotion researchers are increasingly noting the potential impact that the environment has on population health. For example, individuals’ accessibility to health-promoting environments and resources, such as farmers’ markets and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, is increasingly touted as a major determinant of healthy behaviors and subsequent health status. Therefore, the Heart Healthy Lenoir Project used systematic windshield tours to better understand the community-level supports for and barriers to healthy behaviors in Lenoir County. Windshield tours involve driving through an area, taking detailed and systematic notes on physical and social attributes that are observed. Windshield tours are similar to “ground-truthing,” a process by which data gathered from secondary sources are corroborated against the same data gathered onsite. Windshield tours are also qualitative data collection tools, as several researchers have used such tours to document general social attributes of an area. During the months of August through October 2010, we conducted six windshield tours in Lenoir County, with a focus on understanding community context and enumerating county physical activity and nutrition resources. During each tour, a knowledgeable community member accompanied researchers to provide context to the community and venue characteristics. These community informants gave the researchers an important insiders’ perspective, including information on past and present community transitions, cultural and social issues, and important characteristics of venues which enhanced community understanding and can guide future policy considerations. Once community resources were accurately enumerated, they were listed in a community resource guide that will be used in a lifestyle intervention program for residents (the lifestyle program is scheduled to begin in Fall of 2011). During interviews with community members, the community resource guide was found to be very useful as many interview participants did not know about many of the health-promoting resources in Lenoir County. This highlights the importance of raising awareness of health-promoting community resources. The community members also offered important suggestions on how the guide could be modified to improve its impact on behavior change, such as adding information about the family-friendliness of the resources and including larger images and font. The hope is that the comprehensive community resource guide will serve as an information source for residents to explore health-promoting resources. This will help us to be more effective as partners with the Lenoir County community, to promote heart-healthy lifestyles and ultimately fight the burden of heart disease. Written by Stephanie Jilcott, PhD & Jared McGuirt, MPH at the Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University |
Published December 16, 2010 By CED Guest Author
Dr. Tom Keyserling is a faculty member in the UNC School of Medicine and principal investigator for the Heart Healthy Lenoir project at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
The Heart Healthy Lenoir Project is a five-year, NIH-funded project to reduce heart disease risk among residents of Lenoir County, North Carolina. Of all North Carolina counties, Lenoir County has one of the highest heart disease and stroke death rates. Heart Healthy Lenoir is a collaborative project among researchers from East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One component of the Heart Healthy Lenoir Project is to learn more about community-level supports for and barriers to healthy lifestyles among Lenoir County residents.
Health promotion researchers are increasingly noting the potential impact that the environment has on population health. For example, individuals’ accessibility to health-promoting environments and resources, such as farmers’ markets and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, is increasingly touted as a major determinant of healthy behaviors and subsequent health status. Therefore, the Heart Healthy Lenoir Project used systematic windshield tours to better understand the community-level supports for and barriers to healthy behaviors in Lenoir County. Windshield tours involve driving through an area, taking detailed and systematic notes on physical and social attributes that are observed. Windshield tours are similar to “ground-truthing,” a process by which data gathered from secondary sources are corroborated against the same data gathered onsite. Windshield tours are also qualitative data collection tools, as several researchers have used such tours to document general social attributes of an area.
During the months of August through October 2010, we conducted six windshield tours in Lenoir County, with a focus on understanding community context and enumerating county physical activity and nutrition resources. During each tour, a knowledgeable community member accompanied researchers to provide context to the community and venue characteristics. These community informants gave the researchers an important insiders’ perspective, including information on past and present community transitions, cultural and social issues, and important characteristics of venues which enhanced community understanding and can guide future policy considerations.
Once community resources were accurately enumerated, they were listed in a community resource guide that will be used in a lifestyle intervention program for residents (the lifestyle program is scheduled to begin in Fall of 2011). During interviews with community members, the community resource guide was found to be very useful as many interview participants did not know about many of the health-promoting resources in Lenoir County. This highlights the importance of raising awareness of health-promoting community resources. The community members also offered important suggestions on how the guide could be modified to improve its impact on behavior change, such as adding information about the family-friendliness of the resources and including larger images and font. The hope is that the comprehensive community resource guide will serve as an information source for residents to explore health-promoting resources. This will help us to be more effective as partners with the Lenoir County community, to promote heart-healthy lifestyles and ultimately fight the burden of heart disease.
Written by Stephanie Jilcott, PhD & Jared McGuirt, MPH at the Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University
Author(s)
Tagged Under
This blog post is published and posted online by the School of Government to address issues of interest to government officials. This blog post is for educational and informational Copyright ©️ 2009 to present School of Government at the University of North Carolina. All rights reserved. use and may be used for those purposes without permission by providing acknowledgment of its source. Use of this blog post for commercial purposes is prohibited. To browse a complete catalog of School of Government publications, please visit the School’s website at www.sog.unc.edu or contact the Bookstore, School of Government, CB# 3330 Knapp-Sanders Building, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3330; e-mail sales@sog.unc.edu; telephone 919.966.4119; or fax 919.962.2707.
2 Responses to “Heart Healthy Lenoir — Project Update”
Frank Girard
This is a great idea…as a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate, it is gratifying to see such an effort to get to better understand the impact the environment has on heart health.
We at applebananacoconut believe another part of the heart health puzzle is using every method available to make the public more aware of how they can improve their heart health. We’ve published several articles about this here:http://applebananacoconut.com/category/heart-disease-2
Susan Moore
YOur project sounds very interesting. Can you send me more information about your project here in Lenoir County?
I am the Staff Development Specialist for Lenoir Co. Dept. of Social Services and I serve on our agency’s wellness committee. I would like to make our committee aware of your project.
Thank you in advance.