An Integrated Research–Practice Partnership for Physical Activity Promotion in a Statewide Program

ABSTRACT

There is paucity of physical activity videos that are open access and visually feature diverse populations (i.e., varying age, race, and body mass index). These resources may better integrate with programs delivered in health disparate areas through visual role modeling. Through an integrated research–practice partnership, resources titled Move More, Virginia! were created to fill this gap. This study's purpose was to determine knowledge, perceptions, and usage of the new resources among peer educators who deliver community-based programming within Cooperative Extension. A mixed-methods design determined peer educators' sociodemographics, health-related characteristics, and Move More, Virginia! video perceptions. Two independent focus groups were conducted with a peer educator subset to further explore physical activity associated with their health educator roles. Researchers independently coded focus group transcriptions through a grounded theory approach to determine emergent themes and subthemes, expressed through meaning units (MU), related to resource perceptions. Quantitative data statistical analysis included independent t-tests and descriptive statistics. The peer educator majority were middle-aged females and considered overweight or obese. Focus group responses (n = 15) led to the emergence of four themes related to physical activity itself: barriers to incorporating physical activity into programs (n = 189 MU), physical activity facilitators (n = 106 MU), current delivery of physical activity (n = 102 MU), and physical activity barriers (n = 16 MU). When prompted to share video feedback, the top theme was positive video feedback (n = 105 MU). These findings provide deeper understanding of physical activity and the organizational culture of a statewide entity that may influence adoption of physical activity resources, thus guiding future translation of physical activity intervention within statewide programs.