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The Second Sunday initiative, led by Diana Doggett, Deborah Murray, Janet Kurzynske, and Ann Vail, addresses the problem of physical inactivity of Kentuckians through reducing barriers in the local built environment. Inadequate physical activity is a major, largely preventable public health problem. The National Academy of Sciences notes that built environments can facilitate more active lifestyles and modifications to the built environment can provide opportunities, over time, to institute policies and practices that support more activity-conducive environments.
This is important because 29.6% Kentucky adults report no physical activity and only 45% report getting the recommended amounts of physical activity each week. The 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicates that only 32.9% of Kentucky high school students and 44.6% middle school students attend a physical education class at least once a week. Television, computers, and video games further reduce childhood physical activity, with 23% of high school and 31.3 % of middle school students spending three or more hours a day on computers.
Second Sunday has received local, state and national recognition as a unique physical activity initiative that also works to foster creation and improvement of areas supportive of physical activity. This effort is significant in its potential to change the built environment through inexpensive modifications utilizing existing roadways and community infrastructure.
On the second Sunday of October 2008, seventy counties closed roadways for four hours and invited Kentuckians to participate in physical activity. Second Sunday was proclaimed in 2009 by Gov. Beshear and both houses of the legislature, as a day for Kentuckians to take to the "roads for physical activity." The event grew to include 101 Kentucky counties and over 21,000 citizens using 80 miles of KY roadways. The goal is to sustain efforts to increase physical activity and to work with local communities to improve current built environments supporting physical activity while promoting innovative uses of existing infrastructure.
Active partners in 2009 include the UK College of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension/Family and Consumer Sciences, the School of Human Environmental Sciences, UK Healthcare, Windstream Communications, Healthways/Jay McChord (built environment policy consultant), United Way programs, the American Heart Association, the Kentucky Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, YMCAs, the Society for Human Resource Management, Kentucky Homemakers Association, Kentucky state and local government, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Kentucky State Park System, county fiscal courts, city councils, local health departments, faith based centers, local media, and others.
Expected Actions and Outcomes
The Second Sunday team, with diverse expertise, will develop and test an assessment tool for use at the local level in inventorying community spaces supportive of physical activity in all 120 Kentucky counties using the Cooperative Extension statewide network. The inventory assessment project will take place simultaneously and correlate with coalition plans for the statewide Second Sunday event on 10/10/2010. Second Sunday will provide coalitions an opportunity to showcase and explore existing environments for physical activity and develop plans to improve and increase these venues. Establishing a uniform statewide built environment baseline will provide communities, regions, and the state valuable information for funding and policy change.Data analysis and assessment will produce published peer reviewed articles presenting best practices for community assessing the built environment for physical activity.