International Physical Activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) Adolescent study

The IPEN Adolescent study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL111378) from 2012 to 2017. The NIH grant funded the Coordinating Centre based at UC San Diego (initially at San Diego State University) as well as data collection in several countries. Most countries were supported by internal grants. The IPEN Coordinating Centre is now supported by the Australian Catholic University, Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research (Behaviour, Environment and Cognition Research Program).

Abstract

The US Surgeon General, White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, Healthy People 2020, CDC, WHO, IOM, and the International Obesity Task Force recommend environmental and policy interventions for promoting physical activity (PA) and preventing obesity. Strategies should be evidence-based, but built environments’ potential effects on PA are less-understood in youth than adults. Further, 77 of 109 of studies in a review were from North America, and there are likely lessons from studying other countries with distinct environmental features. The evidence is weakened because studies underestimate effect sizes due to restricted range of environments. Adolescence is the time of steepest decline in PA, so this is a high-risk age group. To accurately assess the strength of association of the built environment attributes with PA, sedentary behaviour and weight status, greater environmental variability is required than any one country can provide. Thus, international studies are required, and IPEN Adolescent is a coordinated study of built environments and PA, sedentary behaviour and obesity using common methods. Objective measures of PA and environments are especially important for studies of youth, and almost all countries in IPEN Adolescent collected objective measures of PA, sedentary time and built environments. Validated and systematically adapted surveys assessed built and social environment attributes, psychosocial and demographic variables, and additional outcomes (active transport to school, participation in organized sports and activity classes).

The study was guided by a specific multi-level ecological model. Fifteen countries are providing data for pooled analyses in IPEN Adolescent. In each country, adolescent-parent pairs were recruited from neighbourhoods or schools selected to vary in walkability and socioeconomic status. GIS-derived measures of walkability (community designs that support walking to destinations), playability (access to recreation facilities), and pedestrian accessibility (sidewalks, transit, barriers to walking) will be analysed separately and combined into a “physical activity-friendliness” index. At least 300 adolescents were recruited in each country.

The primary aim is to estimate strengths of association between objective GIS-based measures of the community environment with accelerometer-measured PA and sedentary time in adolescents from data collected according to a common protocol. The second aim is to estimate strengths of association between perceived measures of the community environment (NEWS-Youth survey) with self-reported walking/cycling to/from school and participation in youth sports and activity classes. The third aim is to estimate strengths of association between objective and perceived environment measures with overweight/obesity in adolescents. Analyses will adjust for multi-level clustering and individual demographics. Data collection has been completed and analyses are underway.

Please visit the main IPEN website for more detail about IPEN Adolescent.

Investigators by country

AUSTRALIA
*Jo Salmon jo.salmon@deakin.edu.au
Jenny Veitch jenny.veitch@deakin.edu.au
Anna Timperio anna.timperio@deakin.edu.au
Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au

BANGLADESH
*Zaki Islam zakiislam.mail@gmail.com

BELGIUM
*Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij ilse.debourdeaudhuij@ugent.be
Delfien Van Dyck delfien.vandyck@ugent.be

BRAZIL
*Rodrigo Reis reis.rodrigo@wustl.edu
Akira Hino akira_manaca@yahoo.com.br

CZECH REPUBLIC
*Josef Mitáš josef.mitas@upol.cz
Karel Frömel karel.fromel@upol.cz
Jan Dygryn jan.dygryn@upol.cz

DENMARK
*Jens Troelsen JTroelsen@health.sdu.dk 
Lars Breum Christensen lbchristiansen@health.sdu.dk
Jasper Schipperijn jschipperijn@health.sdu.dk

HONG KONG
*Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au
Poh-chin Lai pclai@hku.hk
Anthony Barnett Anthony.Barnett@acu.edu.au

INDIA
*RM Anjana dranjana@drmohans.com
Guha Pradeepa guhapradeepa@gmail.com
Ranjani Harish drranjanih@gmail.com

ISRAEL
*Mika Moran moran.mika@gmail.com
Orna Baron-Epel ornaepel@research.haifa.ac.il

MALAYSIA
*Wan Manan wanmanan@gmail.com
Yi Yi Lee leeyy.yiyi@gmail.com

NEW ZEALAND
*Grant Schofield grant.schofield@aut.ac.nz
*Erica Hinckson erica.hinckson@aut.ac.nz
Suzanna Mavoa suzanne.mavoa@unimelb.edu.au
Hannah Badland hannah.badland@rmit.edu.au 
Ester Cerin Ester.Cerin@acu.edu.au

NIGERIA
*Adewale Oyeyemi alaoyeyemi@yahoo.com 
Adetoyeje Oyeyemi adeoyeyemi@aol.com

PORTUGAL
*Jorge Mota jmota@fade.up.pt
Paula Maria Santos msantos@fade.up.pt
Andreia Pizarro Andreia anpizarro@fade.up.pt

SPAIN
*Javier Molina-Garcia Javier.Molina@uv.es
Ana Queralt Ana.Queralt@uv.es

US Coordinating Center – Australian Catholic University and UC San Diego
*Jim Sallis jsallis@ucsd.edu
Jacqueline Kerr jkerr@ucsd.edu
Kelli Cain kcain@ucsd.edu
Terry Conway tlconway@ucsd.edu
Carrie Geremia cgeremia@ucsd.edu
Marc Adams marc.adams@asu.edu
Larry Frank ldfrank@urbandesign4health.com
Jim Chapman jchapman@urbandesign4health.com

*Denotes principal investigator

IPEN Adolescent Publications (using international pooled data)

STAY TUNED!