Evaluating the West Virginia Healthy Lifestyles Act: methods and procedures.

BACKGROUND: The West Virginia Healthy Lifestyles Act contained 5 school-based mandates intended to reduce childhood obesity. These addressed the sale of healthy beverages, physical education time, fitness assessment, health education and assessment, and Body Mass Index measurement. This article describes the processes and methods used to evaluate efforts to implement the legislation. METHODS: University researchers and state public health and education staff formed the collaborative evaluation team. To assess perceptions and practices, surveys were completed with school personnel (53 superintendents, 586 principals, 398 physical education teachers, 214 nurses) and telephone interviews were conducted with a multistage, stratified sample of 1500 parents and 420 students statewide. Healthcare providers (N = 122) were surveyed regarding current child weight practices and interactions with families. Statewide data reflecting fitness, physical education plans, local wellness policies, and health knowledge were included in the evaluation. RESULTS: The evaluation was facilitated by state officials and agencies, resulting in good access to survey groups and high survey response rates for school personnel (57% to 95% response rates); a substantially lower response rate was obtained for healthcare providers (22%). CONCLUSIONS: Collaborative design and implementation was a key factor in the successful conduct of this obesity policy evaluation.

Conducting environmental assessments for physical activity: determining traffic volume in walkability audits in two West Virginia communities.

BACKGROUND: In this article, we examine the possibility of reducing time to conduct traffic volume audits through (1) reducing time for manual traffic counting and (2) using Department of Transportation (DOT) information. METHODS: In audits of 824 road segments in 2 West Virginia (WV) communities, manual traffic counts were recorded for 1, 2, and 5 min in duration. Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) was calculated from counts. Available AADT from DOT was also collected. Percent agreement and a weighted kappa were calculated between 5-min count and 1- and 2-min count AADT categories and between 5-min count and DOT AADT categories. RESULTS: One- and 2-min counts produced identical AADT categories as 5-min counts in 93.4% and 95.0% of segments, respectively. Weighted kappa was 0.79 (95% CI = 0.74-0.85) and 0.85 (95% CI = 0.80-0.89), respectively. Forty-two segments (5.1%) had DOT data. CONCLUSIONS: DOT AADT was available for a small percentage of road segments assessed. The high agreement between AADT categories produced by 1- and 2-min counts and 5-min counts makes it reasonable to consider using 1- or 2-min manual traffic counts if time or staffing constraints make it necessary. Possible generalizability of this methodology to other communities, particularly larger urban and suburban areas, will require further research.