# Rural Libraries Promoting Walking and Walkability in Their Rural Communities

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $692,178

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Rural residents generally lack the needed level of physical activity to benefit health and reduce disparities in
chronic illness associated with physical inactivity, such as cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. The
Socioecological Model describes physical activity as involving a dynamic and reciprocal interaction between
individual, social, and community factors; therefore, interventions designed to promote physical activity are
likely to be most effective if they target individual, social and community factors. However, there is a dearth of
such multilevel interventions, particularly with rural communities. Community group-based walking programs
are widely used because of the strong evidence base for increasing physical activity through individual and
social factors. Civic engagement interventions aimed at improving the built environment for physical activity
have had beneficial impacts on community (built environment) and social factors. However, while both the
group-based walking and civic engagement interventions have been successful in rural communities, neither
targets all three factors. Additionally, relative to urban communities, rural communities generally lack the
necessary resources to implement public health programming. An innovative public health partner in rural
communities is public libraries; however, rural libraries often lack the capacity to implement evidence-based
programming. There is, therefore, a critical need to identify effective multilevel physical activity interventions
that promote regular physical activity and are applicable to and feasible in rural communities. The overall
objectives for this project are to increase rural libraries' capacity for program implementation and conduct a
comparative effectiveness study of a group-based walking (standard approach) versus a combined group-
based walking plus civic engagement program aimed at enhancing walkability to increase physical activity
among rural adults. We will also identify key mediators between the program effects and change in outcomes.
We will evaluate program implementation using a positive deviance analysis to understand experiences of high
and low changers at the individual level on key outcomes. We will match and randomize 16 towns to one of the
two approaches and enroll a total of 336 rural residents. Measurements will be taken at baseline and six,
twelve and twenty-four months. Our expected outcomes are to have built rural libraries capacity to implement
evidence-based programs and determined the amplified effects of a combined group-based walking plus civic
engagement program. We also expect to have determined that self-efficacy, social support, group cohesion,
and perceived environment are significant mediators. Finally, we anticipate having demonstrated successful
implementation of the combined program and a completed evaluation including a cost analysis. The positive
impact of these results is that strong definitive evidence of ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10417822
- **Project number:** 1R01NR020368-01
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Cynthia Kay Perry
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $692,178
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-04-15 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10417822

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10417822, Rural Libraries Promoting Walking and Walkability in Their Rural Communities (1R01NR020368-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10417822. Licensed CC0.

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