Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Population Health Interventions

Fewer than 1 in 10 Canadian children and youth are active enough to achieve health benefits. Innovative strategies that target barriers to physical activity are therefore a top public health priority. Features of neighbourhood design (the built environment) including green spaces, traffic lights, traffic speed and volume, curb cuts, lighting, and so on can enhance children's outdoor play, walking, and cycling. However, few studies evaluated how changes to these microscale features impact child and youth health. This 'research gap' is based in part on the complex and costly nature of community infrastructure changes that are most often outside the realm of possibility of research grants. However, we have been provided the unique opportunity to partner with the City of Vancouver as they redesign a neighbourhood to become more 'mobility friendly' for pedestrians. Specifically, the City of Vancouver has committed $3.4M to improve the Comox-Helmcken Greenway, a 3 km corridor in downtown Vancouver. We have developed a close partnership with the City and will work with them to assess whether targeted modifications to the neighbourhood influence; 1. child and youth physical activity, active transport, and fitness, 2. how children, youth, and their parents perceive and move within their neighbourhoods, and 3. barriers to adopting healthy behaviours. We will assess children, youth (and the perceptions of parents) before, during (while mobility habits will be disrupted), and after modifications to the neighbourhood are completed. As a final step we will intervene with an active transport to school program (post construction) to assess the influence of this program on child and youth physical activity and fitness. We envision that the new knowledge we generate will be used in future to guide decision-making and to develop new policies in the City of Vancouver. Lessons learned can also be adapted and applied in cities and towns, elsewhere.