Recent migration trends, fueled in part by the Nation’s love of forests, water, and other natural amenities, are altering the rural landscape. Since the late 1960s, the United States has seen both continued growth of metro populations and renewed population increase in many nonmetro counties. There has been a move toward population deconcentration, reflected both in the tendency of settlement t...

Lifetime exposure to physical activity is an important construct for evaluating associations between physical activity and disease outcomes, given the long induction periods in many chronic diseases. The authors' objective in this study was to evaluate the measurement properties of the Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire (L-PAQ), a novel Internet-based, self-administered instrument measuri...

[Purpose] To determine the effects of a combined physical activity, arts and crafts, and recreational program on the activities of daily living (ADL), cognitive function, and depression in the elderly. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-eight elderly persons aged 65 years or older who live in P City, South Korea participated in a program combining arts and crafts and physical and recreational activi...

OBJECTIVES A small proportion of pediatric sport- and recreation-related injuries are serious enough to be considered "major trauma." However, the immediate and long-term consequences in cases of pediatric major trauma are significant and potentially life-threatening. The objective of this study was to describe the incidence and outcomes of pediatric major traumas related to sport and recreatio...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effects on energy expenditure, health and fitness outcomes in sedentary older adults aged 55-65 after 6-month participation in the GALM program. METHODS In three Dutch communities, subjects from matched neighbourhoods were assigned to an intervention (n = 79) or a waiting-list control group (n = 102). The GALM program consisted of fifteen 60 min sessions once a week...

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in heart rate during submaximal exercise as an index of cardiovascular function in older adults participating in the Groningen Active Living Model recreational sports programme who were sedentary or underactive at baseline. A repeated measurement design was conducted; 151 participants were included, providing 398 heart rate files over a period of...

Noise emanating from human activity has become a common addition to natural soundscapes and has the potential to harm wildlife and erode human enjoyment of nature. In particular, motor vehicles traveling along roads and trails produce high levels of both chronic and intermittent noise, eliciting varied responses from a wide range of animal species. Anthropogenic noise is especially conspicuous ...

Ecological security and environmental sustainability are the foundations of sustainable development. With the acceleration of urbanization, increasing human activities have promoted greater impacts on the eco-spaces that maintain ecological security. Regional key eco-space has become the primary need to maintain environmental sustainability and can offer society with continued ecosystem service...

BACKGROUND The concept of walkable neighborhoods is increasingly important in physical activity research and intervention. However, limited theoretical understanding and measurable definitions remain a challenge. METHODS This paper reviews theories defining neighborhoods and offers an empirical approach to identify measurable attributes and thresholds of walkable neighborhoods. Bivariate and ...

In order to better understand the nature of disturbances to wintering snowy plovers, I observed snowy plovers and activities that might disturb them at a beach near Devereux Slough in Santa Barbara, California, USA. Disturbance (activity that caused plovers to move or fly) to wintering populations of threatened western snowy plovers was 16 times higher at a public beach than at protected beache...