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Walking for transport can contribute significantly to population levels of physical activity. Health agencies are consequently seeking opportunities to influence transport policy to achieve co-benefits of increased physical activity and reduced congestion. This case study utilised Kingdon’s ‘Multiple Stream’ theory as a framework to examine the policy development process that led to the establishment of the first ever state walking target and subsequent state walking strategy in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This chapter presents how evidence compilation was translated into various policy solutions across sectors before an opportune political environment provided a brief ‘policy window’ (the 2011 state election in NSW, Australia and change of Government). The advantages of a ‘policy entrepreneur’ formally empowered to engage policy makers across multiple agencies and identify forthcoming ‘policy windows’ to frame politically palatable walking policy solutions is highlighted. No data have been compiled to measure the impact of the finalised policy upon walking in NSW. The case study reinforces previous research findings that walking policy development, like other areas of public health, is often based more on politics and professional judgement than on research evidence alone. Differences in walking target measures in the health and transport sectors influence which policy solutions are prioritised. The chapter describes the policy development process of the first state walking strategy in NSW, Australia to better understand factors that may influence similar future policy decisions.

The aim of this study was to develop a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events, which may act as a prompt for clinical incident reporting in trauma and orthopaedics and to determine what healthcare professionals understand by the term adverse event. A modified Delphi process with healthcare professionals working in trauma and orthopaedics (242) in three NHS trusts was performed. The process involved initial brainstorming sessions, a two‐round Likert‐style postal questionnaire and final focus group discussion. The initial brainstorming sessions generated a list of 224 adverse events to be included in the first round of the postal questionnaire. They included 83 causes of adverse events, 36 health and safety related adverse events and 105 clinical adverse events. Following the second round questionnaire and focus group discussion, a final list of 20 adverse events was produced. There were variations between professional groups in terms of validity scoring of individual adverse events. Overall, medical staff gave a lower rating to the adverse events than the other two professional groups. There were also variations between professional groups in terms of response rates. The modified Delphi process proved to be a successful tool for generating a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events and for understanding what healthcare professionals understand by the term adverse event.

This chapter aims to review evidence of the relationships between dog ownership, dog walking and overall walking and the factors associated with dog walking. It reviews the evidence using a social ecological framework. The chapter finds that dog ownership and dog walking are associated with higher levels of walking. A number of social ecological factors are associated with dog walking. Motivation and social support provided by the dog to walk and a sense of responsibility to walk the dog are associated with higher levels of dog walking. Positive social pressure from family, friends, dog owners and veterinarians is also associated with higher levels of dog walking. Built and policy environmental characteristics influence dog walking, including dog-specific factors such as access to local attractive public open space with dog-supportive features (off-leash, dog waste bags, trash cans, signage), pet-friendly destinations (cafes, transit, workplaces, accommodation) and local laws that support dog walking. Large-scale intervention studies are required to determine the effect of increased dog walking on overall walking levels. Experimental study designs, such as natural and quasi-experiments, are needed to provide stronger evidence for causal associations between the built and policy environments and dog walking. Given the potential of dog walking to increase population-levels of walking, urban, park and recreational planners need to design neighbourhood environments that are supportive of dog walking and other physical activity. Advocacy for dog walking policy-relevant initiatives are needed to support dog walking friendly environments. Health promotion practitioners should make dog walking a key strategy in social marketing campaigns.

Recognizing the demand for a reliable subjective instrument to gather information on walking to occupational activities on the neighbourhood scale, this paper outlines the Neighbourhood Walking to Occupational Activities Questionnaire (NWOAQ) recently developed at the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde. The approach follows reliable techniques in the design of questionnaires including the analysis of currently available instruments, interviews with the potential case study participants, and the use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). It describes the testing of NWOAQ, following a ‘mixed method' adopted to sample the population of three case studies in Basra City, in Iraq (Al-Saymmar, Al-Mugawleen, and Al-Abassya). Cronbach's ‘Alpha Test' (Cronbach, 1951) was conducted on three significant variables selected; ‘the perceived environment' variables; the ‘constructs of the TPB' variables; and the ‘walking outcome' variables. This displayed different alpha levels, which were; 0.76; 0.74; and 0.87, respectively. Based on CAT, the level of internal consistency that would render a group of indicators reliable should be no less than 0.60.

The purpose of this chapter is to review how well walking interventions have increased and sustained walking, and to provide suggestions for improving future walking interventions. A scoping review was conducted of walking interventions for adults that emphasised walking as a primary intervention strategy and/or included a walking outcome measure. Interventions conducted at the individual, community, and policy levels between 1990 and 2015 were included, with greater emphasis on recent interventions. Walking tends to increase early in interventions and then gradually declines. Results suggest that increased walking, and environmental-change activities to support walking are more likely to be sustained when they are immediately followed by greater economic benefits/time-savings, social approval, and/or physical/emotional well-being. Adaptive interventions that adjust intervention procedures to match dynamically changing environmental circumstances also hold promise for sustaining increased walking. Interventions that incorporate automated technology, durable built environment changes, and civic engagement, may increase cost-efficiency. Variations in outcome measures, study duration, seasons, participant characteristics, and possible measurement reactivity preclude causal inferences about the differential effectiveness of specific intervention procedures for increasing and sustaining walking. This review synthesises the effects of diverse walking interventions on increasing and sustaining walking over a 25-year period. Suggestions are provided to guide future development of more effective, sustainable walking interventions at the population level.

Social farming is the use of commercial farms and agricultural landscapes to promote mental and physical health for service users through ordinary farming activities. While previous research has focused on the service user, the farmer’s perspective and well-being has not been extensively considered in the research. The purpose of this study was to explore Irish-based farmer's experiences of social farming.

A qualitative-descriptive approach was used to explore the form, function and meaning of facilitating social farming. Purposive sampling was used for recruitment. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with ten social farmers.

Four themes emerged from the interviews: characteristics of the farm and farmer, connection, mutually beneficial farming and challenges of social farming.

This study sheds light on the experience of occupational rejuvenation that occurs for the farmer and their family through engagement in social farming, seen through their renewed passion for farming and the focus on mundane occupations. This highlights how the occupation of facilitating social farming can increase the well-being of those involved in the occupation.

This chapter introduces how the built environment and walking are connected. It looks at the interrelationships within the built environment, and how those are changing given planning and policy efforts to facilitate increased walking for both leisure activity and commuting. Using a broad review and case-based approach, the chapter examines this epistemological development of walking and the built environment over time, reviews the connections, policies and design strategies and emerging issues. The chapter shows many cases of cities which are creating a more walkable environment. It also reveals that emerging issues related to technology and autonomous vehicles, vision zero and car-free cities, and increased regional policy may play a continued role in shaping the built environment for walking. This dialogue provides both a core underpinning and a future vision for how the built environment can continue to influence and respond to pedestrians in shaping a more walkable world.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of emerging technologies in the promotion of health and well-being at the urban, domestic and bodily scale, through the systematic examination of technologies such as physical sensing systems and physiological data monitoring, that are currently explored as drivers for achieving sustainable healthcare within a multi-scalar approach.

A comprehensive study of the various technologies associated with smart healthcare is provided, first investigating smart cities, physical sensing systems and geospatial data as potential enablers of public health. Then the discourse shifts towards exploring Smart Home technologies for healthcare, first reviewing strategies of enhancing the home environment with multisensory components, and then discussing the emergence of physiological monitoring devices and their interconnection with the domestic and urban environment.

While the implementation of Internet of Things, physical sensing systems and geospatial analytics in extracting and analyzing the multiple information layers of the urban, the domestic and the bodily environment, has been widely explored, there is little consideration on the transition from the domestic to the urban level, and while within each of the different scales, the need for a multi-componential approach is addressed, there is minimal effort towards its materialization.

The major contribution of this study therefore lies in laying the ground for further research towards a multi-scalar relational approach that views smart healthcare as a trajectory, binding the bodily, to the domestic and the urban fabric.

Owing to the significance of a healthy lifestyle, we investigate the antecedents of the healthy lifestyle of young consumers in Sri Lanka. 658 structured questionnaires were collected from young consumers in Sri Lanka as part of the survey procedure. The judgmental sampling method is used to choose the respondents. The analysis makes use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings disclose a high degree of healthy lifestyle among young consumers in Sri Lanka. Further findings revealed that health consciousness, collective esteem, and neighborhood environment are the antecedents for a healthy lifestyle. As young consumers are more concerned about a healthy lifestyle, managers in certain industries such as food and beverages, hotels, and restaurants should adopt their products and services in line with a healthy lifestyle.