title: Observing physical activity in suburbs.
abstract: This study examined the reliability of the block walk method (BWM) for observing physical activity on suburban sidewalks/streets. Trained observers simultaneously walked 40 sidewalk/street segments each 1525 m in length at a pace of 30.5 m/min while recording the number of individuals walking/bicycling/jogging and the address where the activity occurred. An activity was observed at 2.9% of the 1020 addresses walked passed. In all 41 individuals were seen walking, 4 jogging, and 3 bicycling during 400 observation minutes. Agreements were 80%, 90%, and 86.7% for address, activity type, and number of individuals. The BWM is reliable for assessing activity on suburban sidewalks/streets.
authors.affiliation: Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, 468 SEP, Kansas City, MO 64106, USA. rsuminski@kcumb.edu
authors.forename: Richard R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Suminski
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fritzsinger
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leck
authors.forename: Melissa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hyder
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D004779:Environment Design; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States; D009043:Motor Activity; D019370:Observation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012923:Social Class; D013383:Suburban Population