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IPEN News 2009 Dear IPEN members, Other news: The IPEN staff at San Diego State University 2010 Built Environment Assessment Training (BEAT) Institute
June 13-18, 2010 - Philadelphia, PA The built environment, which is made up of the nutrition and physical activity environments, streetscapes, transportation environments, and everything in between, has been identified as a key determinant in the obesity epidemic. Therefore, understanding how environmental and policy changes can inform efforts to control obesity, improve diet and physical activity, is a priority. A variety of measures now exist that allow researchers and practitioners to plan and evaluate changes to the built environment. The Built Environment Assessment Training (BEAT) Institute is designed to train participants to use these measures for research and practice. The goals of the BEAT Institute are to: 1) Prepare investigators and practitioners to use both observational and self-report measures of nutrition and activity environments and related behavioral assessments through lectures, fieldwork, hands-on skills, group work and individual consultation and 2) Increase the number of professionals qualified to conduct built environment assessments for nutrition and physical activity. For more information, see http://www.med.upenn.edu/BEAT or email us at edavi@med.upenn.edu Funding through the USDA with support from the Center for Health Behavior Research at the University of Pennsylvania and the San Diego Prevention Research Center. The 9th issue of EURO-PREVOB project's quarterly newsletter has been published. To read this newsletter, click here The 2009 Environment, Well-Being and Healthy Lifestyle conference will be held October 21st 2009 at the Moat House Hotel, Stoke on Trent, ST1 5BQ. For more information see: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/sciences/geography/links/IESR/conference_Oct09.shtml
IPEN will have a symposium at the 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH) May 5th-8th, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. Several IPEN members will present the latest findings from their countries' research. For more information about the conference see: www.icpaph2010.org
IPEN currently has 268 members in 50 countries! We recently received a great score for our IPEN study grant proposal. We hope to start the study in 2009. For more details see the study abstract & aims IPEN News 2008 New Program Announcement from the National Cancer Institute: Geographic and Contextual Influences on Energy Balance-Related Health Behaviors Research training program opportunity to build research capacity in low- and middle-income countries IPEN News 2006
The network continues to expand and progress! There are now 181 members from 29 countries. The Czech Republic are starting to collect data and Hong Kong and Denmark have applied for funding in their countries - good luck! Translations of the NEWS are growing and can be found on the website www.ipenproject.org/surveytranslated.htm. We have also added an employment section to the website for job advertisements and posting collaboration opportunities, please send Jacqueline details of things you would like to promote www.ipenproject.org/Employment.htm. We have also added a user friendly version of the NQLS manual of operations to the website www.ipenproject.org/methods.htm. There is also a new publication about the IPAQ under member's publications www.ipenproject.org/publications.htm. We are planning special IPEN meetings and workshops in 2006 in Atlanta in April and Thailand in November. And will be meeting in San Diego this October to brainstorm funding opportunities and how to coordinate data management. Jacqueline recently met with CDC staff, Chris Riddoch, and Stuart Trost to discuss IPEN initiatives. Thank you for your continued support and efforts to expand the network!
We managed to organize an IPEN gathering at the ACSM annual meeting in Nashville in June 2005. There were members from Hong Kong, Brazil, Kuwait, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Taiwan and the US there. In addition we had the support of Candace Rutt from the CDC and John Schneider from Actigraph. Abstracts from the meeting are available in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2005, 37, supplement to no. 5. Members please send me any presentations you would like published on the website. An example from Sanne deVries in the Netherlands is available under the "Conferences" page. At the meeting, many suggestions were made and I would like to pass some of these on for your consideration.
2) Actigraphs are also available for lease from Actigraph and the CDC. 3) Concerns about analysis of actigraph data and cut offs were raised. There will be a supplement in October's MSSE about this. Our team will also be developing a cleaning and screening protocol as we analyze our data. There is already a useful NQLS protocol for sending out and using accelerometers, if anyone requires this contact me directly. We also have some software in development for analyzing the data. 4) Some examples of differences between the countries have arisen, as expected. For example, Brazil has no cul de sacs, Hong Kong has no word for neigborhood. We suggest neighborhood is described as within a 10-15 walk from an individual's home in any direction. 5) The important thing is when you come across such differences and issues please share them with us and let us come to some consensus on how to make changes. This way we can keep the data as consistent as possible across countries. 6) Countries may also get some ideas for translations from the Environment module of the IPS. 7) Some members feel overwhelmed by the tasks required to do a fully funded IPEN study. We will try to develop some suggestions how members can start with smaller scale research projects that can be conducted with minimal funding. 8) Members have requested an IPEN powerpoint presentation that can be used to explain the project aims and methods. We will start to develop this in due course. 9) A GIS recipe book will be available on the Active Living Research website in the near future. 10) Members are encourage to join the CDC Livability Listserv www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/contact.htm There will be a special IPEN meeting at the ISBNPA conference in Amsterdam www.isbnpa.org, at 15.00 on Saturday 18th June 2005. Please send Jacqueline a 5 line summary of your research plans or progress to date so that she can circulate this information at the conference.
We were delighted to meet with IPEN members from Denmark, Japan, Australia and Portugal here in San Diego during the recent Active Living Research conference (Program at a Glance 2005. These discussions have helped us to solidify the IPEN concept and make great progress. We look forward to visits from IPEN members from Sweden and the Czech Republic in the next two months.
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