Louise Mâsse, PhD¹, James F. Igoe, MA, MLS², Judy Kruger, PhD, MS³, Audie Atienza, PhD¹, Harold Kohl, PhD³, Kristianna Pettibone, MS, PhD², and Amy Lazarus Yaroch, PhD¹. (1) Cancer Control and Population Sciences Division, National Cancer Institute, Executive Plaza North, Suite 4076, 6130 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20892-7335, 301-435-3961, massel@mail.nih.gov, (2) Center for Health Policy and Legislative Analysis, The MayaTech Corporation, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 900, Silver Spring, MD 20910-5645, (3) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE,  MS K-46, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717

To date there is no standardized system for tracking and evaluating the impact of physical activity legislative policies, therefore the purpose of this study was to develop such surveillance system. A comprehensive search of the Westlaw legal databases served to identify state statutes that addressed the following topical areas related to physical activity: land use, urban design, transportation, physical education, and community physical activity promotion. An expert panel was convened to develop: a three-tiered coding system to classify legislative policies and a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the impact of these policies. The preliminary review of state statutes indicates that the provision of facilities, programs, and services that promote physical activity traditionally were left to the discretion of local governments. The issues surrounding urban sprawl (such as infill, mixed-use, and transit-oriented development to address the problems associated with urban sprawl and to facilitate walking and biking) and its impact on public health are receiving more attention at the state level. The evaluation framework, developed by the expert panel, includes systemic and capacity factors at the state level that may be influenced by these state legislative policies and identifies proximal, intermediate, and distal outcomes that can be used to assess the impact of these policies. Given that state policies which directly and indirectly promote an active lifestyle have the potential to address the current obesity epidemic in the US, there is a growing interest in understanding the impact of legislative policies on environmental determinants of behavior and on population level behavior.

Learning Objectives:

• Become familiar with the policies that can impact on physical activity behaviors.
• Learn how the effectiveness of these policies can be evaluated.
• Learn how state capacity and policies can impact physical activity behavior at the population level.

Keywords: Physical Activity, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.