Community Health Promotion In The Mall

Abstract

1357 The enclosed shopping mall has become a dependable community resource for the pursuit of fitness primarily by seniors aged 65 years or greater. The safety of the mall for this purpose has not been evaluated. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of the mall over the decade of the 1990s as a safe site for fitness from the perspective of mall administration. METHODS: In 1992 a questionnaire was mailed to the mall directors in 60 randomly chosen enclosed shopping malls in the southeastern United States (73% returned). The questionnaire was repeated in 2000 with many of the same malls, however, due to prior promises of confidentiality of response a new random sample had to be obtained for the second questionnaire (57% returned). The results were analyzed for significance by a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. RESULTS: Despite its continued popularity, mall directors reported a 36% decline in mall walking activity and a 13% decrease in the frequency of reported mall walking clubs. The increase in CPR trained personnel (11.5%) may have been fueled by the increase in the number of reported heart attacks, one in 1992 and 9 in 2000. On site primary health care services have increased for mall walkers by 66.7% while mall-tohospital relationships have increased by 7.5%. Despite these changes over the decade there were no significant differences between the responses in 1992 and those in 2000. CONCLUSION: Mall management has been proactive in its response to the needs of the community in providing a safe site for health management through exercise despite a decrease in the use of the mall by walkers. Due to the risk associated with exercise, the managers in many malls have wisely enlisted the aid of community hospitals in providing on-site health care.