Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Mental Health Benefits Of Physical Activity In Older Adults, Adrian Kurt Zitzmann

Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner

Physical activity is the fountain of youth, strengthening both the physical body as well as the mind, leading to better emotional stability and a general sense of well-being. The population over age 65 is nearing retirement age and are transitioning from a high paced work and family life to a slower and less active “empty nest” lifestyle. Among adults over age 65, will implementing an exercise program for 30 minutes per day increase mental well-being? The benefits of physical activity will be supported by gathering a group of older adults ages 65 and up from a local retirement community to …

Estimating The Health Effects Of Adding Bicycle And Pedestrian Paths At The Census Tract Level: Multiple Model Comparison, Ross J. Gore, Christopher Lynch, Craig Jordan, Andrew Collins, R. Michael Robinson, Gabrielle Fuller, Pearson Ames, Prateek Keerthi, Yash Kandukuri

VMASC Publications

Background: Adding additional bicycle and pedestrian paths to an area can lead to improved health outcomes for residents over time. However, quantitatively determining which areas benefit more from bicycle and pedestrian paths, how many miles of bicycle and pedestrian paths are needed, and the health outcomes that may be most improved remain open questions.

Objective: Our work provides and evaluates a methodology that offers actionable insight for city-level planners, public health officials, and decision makers tasked with the question “To what extent will adding specified bicycle and pedestrian path mileage to a census tract improve residents’ health outcomes over time?” …

Association Of Disease Outcomes With Physical Activity In Multiple Sclerosis: A Cross-Sectional Study, Trinh L T Huynh, Stephanie L Silveira, Brenda Jeng, Robert W Motl

Student and Faculty Publications

UNLABELLED: Purpose/Objective Research: This study examined combinations of disease outcomes (i.e., walking, cognition, and symptoms) as correlates of physical activity subgroups (insufficiently active vs. sufficiently active) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).

RESEARCH METHOD/DESIGN: This study included 213 participants who completed walking and cognitive function tests and self-report measures of symptoms and physical activity. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis identified combinations of MS outcomes associated with physical activity.

RESULTS: The sample had a mean age of 49.6 years (

CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS: The findings identified walking endurance and limitations, processing speed, depression, and fatigue as primary correlates of physical …

Infrastructure And Policies Supporting Physical Activity Habits: A Comparison Between The United States And Europe, Anisha Laddha

Honors College Theses

Most adults in the United States are not getting enough physical activity, and this is causing high rates of adverse health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the population. The rising costs of cardiovascular disease are a national problem that must be tackled from multiple perspectives. This literature review explores policies and infrastructure implemented in European countries with better health outcomes and higher physical activity levels in the population compared to the United States. The infrastructure in places such as Germany and Denmark is constructed to encourage physical activity in the form of active transportation such as walking …

Walking Is Worthy: Walking For Hypertension, Ashleigh Y. Peterson

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Elevated blood pressure (BP), or hypertension (HTN), can cause a cascade of detrimental effects to the body. It is associated with increased risk of stroke, angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, peripheral artery disease, end-stage renal disease, and abdominal aortic aneurysms (Whelton et al., 2018). HTN is also a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the United States’ (U.S.) leading cause of death in men and women (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force [USPSTF], 2020). The PICOT question for this project was: does an eight-week (T) structured walking program utilizing a smartwatch for step counts and …

Associations Of Public Open Space Attributes With Active And Sedentary Behaviors In Dense Urban Areas: A Systematic Review Of Observational Studies, Minica Motomura, Mohammad Javad Koohsari, Chien-Yu Lin, Kaori Ishii, Ai Shibata, Tomoki Nakaya, Andrew T. Kaczynski Ph.D., Jenny Veitch, Koichiro Oka

Faculty Publications

In the context of rapid urbanization, public open spaces in dense urban areas are critical built environment elements to support active lifestyles. Several reviews have explored the associations of public open space attributes with physically active and sedentary behavior. However, few reviews have included studies from Asia, and no studies have focused on dense urban areas. This systematic review analyzed 18 observational studies investigating associations between public open space attributes with physical activity and sedentary behavior in dense urban areas of East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. We found that closer distance to and a greater …