Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

This project started October 1, 2016:

Evidence-based community research is instrumental in driving change in awareness, behavior and policy activity in the public health sector. Policy change is only effective and far-reaching when strong measures of dissemination and implementation data are available to support trends over time. Without a methodical process to measure and ensure the longevity of such research, valuable concepts are unable to claim impact indirectly or directly of the intended target population. Community based research is often based around low-income or under-represented individuals who would greatly benefit from the evidence-based interventions/programs done in similar populations.  Measuring and giving impact reports back to the community to empower future change across all sectors, especially public health, relies on long-term evidence-based community research to design, implement, capture and report back trends.

One such model this research team is using to further understand impact is eB4CAST. eB4CAST was developed using a modified framework of RE-AIM model to capture intervention/program adoption, usability, fidelity and future application in additional target populations. Feedback from committees and stakeholders will be used to modify audits or constructs assessed by surveys.

• Short-term Outcomes: As public and private funding across all sectors decreases, it is essential to measure impact and trends over time. Giving reports generated by indirect and direct data sources back to the communities will empower them to have a deep footprint capturing the positive public change and thus assisting in funding sustainability potentially from the community themselves.
• Outputs: No outputs to report at this time.
• Activities: The multi-state team is working on capturing environmental data to identify specific components related to healthfulness of the environment. The Healthy Campus Environmental Audit (HCEA) is a comprehensive series of objective assessments to determine the environmental supports for health promotion and obesity prevention. The audit includes the most important evidence-based health promotion, food/dining, physical activity education and infrastructure environmental factors that might influence consumer behavior. The HCEA evaluates cafeteria/restaurants, convenience store, vending, recreation programs/facilities, walkability/bike-ability, and initiatives and policies. The HCEA is applicable for a variety of campus types: worksites, schools, college/university, hospitals, and communities. The extensiveness of the implementation of this audit is decided by the campus team. The HCEA can be used in entirety to understand the full food/physical activity/health promotion environment, by evaluating a sampling of venues for each audit, or simply to evaluate one specific venue (e.g. a restaurant, a store, a vending machine, a recreation facility, etc.).  The HCEA can be used to document, monitor, and advocate for health-facilitating campus environmental and policy supports and changes. 
  • The Full Restaurant Evaluation Supporting a Healthy (FRESH) Dining Environment Audit evaluates the nutrition environment of dining establishments including restaurants (fast food, sit down, cafes), dining halls, cafeterias, buffets and food courts [53]. The audit evaluates the food and preparation descriptions to determine healthfulness of menu items, rather than a nutrient analysis perspective, and the availability/extensiveness of other supports for making healthy dining decisions.
  • The Convenience Store Supporting Healthy Environment for Life-promoting Food (SHELF) Audit evaluates the healthfulness of the food store environment of convenience stores, drug stores, dollar/discount stores, mini-marts, bodegas/corner stores, and food carts [54]. The audit evaluates the presence of healthier foods and the availability/extensiveness of other environmental supports for making healthy food purchasing decisions.
  • Healthfulness Vending Evaluation for Nutrient-Density (VENDing) Audit evaluates the nutrition environment of vending machines (snack, beverage and prepared foods) using nutrient density healthfulness scores and the availability of environmental supports for making healthy vending purchase decisions.
  • Physical Activity Campus Environmental Supports (PACES) Audit evaluates the recreation facilities and programs for a campus environment and the availability and extensiveness of the environmental physical activity supports.
  • Sneakers and Spokes Walkability/Bike-ability Audit is adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Healthier Worksite Initiative Walkability Audit and evaluates the safety and quality features of walking/biking path segments on a campus.
• Milestones: In Year 1 (2016-17) the revised Healthy Campus Environmental Audit will be tested in a small sample and revised accordingly. In Year 02 (2017-2018) prototype audits of the HCEA will be pilot tested.