Dear colleagues,
we carry out a research project in a company neighbourhood/industrial park to promote physical activity in the occupational setting.
Using a standardised instrument, I would like to ask the employees to what extent they perceive the environment as promoting/limiting physical activity.
I have found questionnaires on neighbourhoods or public parks, but do not find them suitable yet. Does anyone have a starting point for my research?
Many thanks in advance!
I have an interesting answer to your inquiry. My employer supports a broad spectrum of "wellness" programs as part of the health insurance coverage. My job is mostly sedentary desk work and so getting enough physical activity during the work week is a problem for me. I am quite active on the weekends. I have participated in a large number of programs that purport to facilitate and increase physically active lifestyles. To date, I have not found a single program that has any merit for a person that is instinctively physically active but restrained by the nature of their employment and community (i.e. their environment, including transportation systems and housing). They may help a person that is predisposed to being a "couch potato" by nature, I don't know about that. This is a long way of getting to the point that none of these programs seem to be aware of a useful questionnaire on environmental barriers to physical activity (short or otherwise). There are many questionnaires and programs out there that purport to accomplish what you are seeking to accomplish. I do not recommend any of the several that I have tried. The market is full of poor products.
Dear Matthew Mabey,
Thank you for your thoughts.
At the moment I think that subscales of the long version of the ALPHA questionnaire might be suitable for a general overview, although this questionnaire does not explicitly ask for barriers. However, environmental perceptions in relation to physical activity are asked.
https://sites.google.com/site/alphaprojectphysicalactivity/alpha-public-documents/environmental-questionnaire
- Badges
- Science topic