Citizen Science to Promote Sustained Physical Activity in Low-Income Communities

The major objective of this project is to enhance the potential scalability and
sustainability of person-level physical activity (PA) interventions by leveraging the
capacity of residents themselves as local data gatherers and solution generators for
neighborhood environmental change. The primary aim of the group-randomized trial is to
systematically compare the sustained (two-year) multi-level impacts of a lay
advisor-delivered, person-level PA intervention that has demonstrated efficacy and
translatability (Active Living Every Day) [ALED Alone arm], versus the ALED program in
combination with a novel neighborhood-level intervention, called Our Voice [ALED+Our Voice
arm]. The Our Voice program teaches residents to use a simple mobile application to
individually and collectively identify neighborhood barriers to daily PA. They then convey
this information to local stakeholders and decision-makers in ways that can facilitate
potentially sustainable neighborhood-level improvements in support of regular PA. Up to
sixteen affordable housing sites serving low-income, ethnically diverse midlife and older
adults will be randomized to one of the two interventions.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Lives at a designated housing site;

- Is insufficiently physically active based on National guidelines;

- Can engage in moderate forms of PA such as walking;

- No plans to move from the area over the 2-year period;

- Willing to engage in study assessments.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Only one eligible member of a household will be enrolled;

- Medical conditions which contraindicate participation in regular, unsupervised
moderate-intensity physical activity.