Dover Micro Open Street Events: Evaluation Results and Implications for Community-Based Physical Activity Programming.

Richard R Suminski,Eric Plautz,Chanda Jackson-Short,Freda Patterson,Karen Speakman,Rita Landgraf,Noël Duckworth

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2019.00356

Abstract

Open Streets events provide opportunities for residents to be active. The current program developed and implemented five smaller scale, Micro Open Streets Events (MOSE) in Dover, DE that provided a range of opportunities for physical activity over a <0.5 miles stretch of closed road. Our objective was to evaluate the capacity of this approach to reach residents and improve knowledge and intention to engage in physical activity once the event was over. We used individual surveys, observational, and neighborhood audit factors to assess MOSE participation and conduciveness to physical activity. Our results showed that MOSE attendance ranged from 40 to 500 adults from a high-risk demographic (i.e., non-Caucasian, middle-age, overweight), who demonstrated a strong liking of the MOSE and increased knowledge of, and intention to engage in physical activity following the event. Our data suggest that where a full-scale Open Streets event is not feasible, a MOSE may be a viable alternative.

Highlights

Consistent with national rates [1], up to half of adults in the state of Delaware are inactive and fail to meet physical activity guidelines [2]
The program was approved by the University of Delaware Institutional Review Board (#1239506)
Given the observational nature of the study, and that non-identifiable information was collected as part of the evaluation, participant informed consent was not collected

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Consistent with national rates [1], up to half of adults in the state of Delaware are inactive and fail to meet physical activity guidelines [2]. To expand on the evidence-base in support of the Open Street initiatives, a local multi-interest organizing committee was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate five “Micro” Open Streets events between June and December 2018 in the small city of Dover (37,109 residents) (US Census). These events were considered “Micro” because unlike other published accounts of Open Streets events that involved closing ∼70 miles of highways for recreation [8], the current “Micro” events closed 2–4 blocks (i.e., 0.2–0.4 miles). Examples of activities include a basketball and football station administered by the Police Athletic League, a bike rodeo, healthy eating demonstrations and mock grocery shopping challenges, and a stage-based station that had other organized physical activity classes such as Zumba, jazzercise, yoga, soul line dancing, cardio-drumming, a boot camp style workout and more

EVALUATION METHODS

RESULTS

ETHICS STATEMENT