# Multilevel Physical Activity Intervention For Low Income Public Housing Residents - Diversity Supplement

> **NIH NIH R01** · TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · $117,906

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Physical activity (PA) is a cornerstone for enhancing overall health, reducing the risk of chronic diseases, and
improving the quality of life for individuals of all ages. Despite the health benefits of PA, only 23% of adults in
the United States meet the recommended guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.
Recommended PA levels are not equally distributed across Americans; there are disparities in PA levels among
different racial and ethnic groups. Socioeconomic barriers, environmental factors, and systemic racism
contribute to lower levels of PA in minoritized communities. Dr. Brennan Rhodes-Bratton aims to become an
independent health equity researcher with expertise in chronic disease prevention through rigorous mixed-
methods. She seeks to investigate the interplay of structural, environmental, and behavioral determinants of
chronic disease using a theory-driven approach to learn how to best support PA improvement by incorporating
gentrification and health habitus as central to discovering solutions to the PA health disparities. Aligning with
the purpose of PA-21-071, this diversity supplement extends the research from the parent award, Community
Walks Clinical Trial, to specifically explore the sustainability of a multi-level PA intervention among residents of
public housing developments. The diversity supplement aims to estimate the confounding and potential
moderating effects of gentrification and health habitus on moderate-intensity physical activity among
participants across all four arms of the Community Walks intervention trial. This supplement will evaluate
publicly available neighborhood-level gentrification indicators, individual-level psychosocial factors, and health
behaviors that act as a proxy for gentrification and health habitus from the Community Walks baseline, 12-
month, and 24-month follow-up surveys. Countless studies have sought to improve physical activity in
sedentary populations by focusing on individual factors like motivation, attitudes, and self-efficacy. However,
the improvements in activity levels achieved by these interventions often do not persist beyond the initial
intervention period. One potential reason for this lack of sustainability is the need for more consideration of
environmental factors that promote physical activity. Consequently, there is a growing emphasis on the
complex interplay of environmental and social factors that influence physical activity to develop multi-level
strategies to better tailor interventions. Both the parent grant and this diversity supplement emphasize the
importance of the interplay between structural, environmental, and behavioral determinants of health by
developing a multi-level intervention (parent grant) and centering the social process of gentrification and the
theoretical construct of health habitus in the study design (supplement). Our analysis will determine whether
gentrification and health habitus have moderation effects on the fou...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11102692
- **Project number:** 3R01MD015165-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa M. Quintiliani
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $117,906
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-05-27 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11102692

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11102692, Multilevel Physical Activity Intervention For Low Income Public Housing Residents - Diversity Supplement (3R01MD015165-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-04 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11102692. Licensed CC0.

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