A citizen science approach to determine perceived barriers and promoters of physical activity in a low-income South African community

ABSTRACT

The study’s objective was to assess the feasibility of using citizen science to identify and address physical activity (PA) barriers in a low-income South African community. We purposively selected as citizen scientists, eleven participants (21–45 years) from a cohort study who expressed interest in becoming physically active or were already active. They used the Stanford Neighborhood Discovery Tool mobile application to take photos and provide audio narratives of factors in their community that were barriers to or facilitated PA. Thereafter, in a facilitated workshop, citizen scientists thematically reviewed their findings, prioritised issues and proffered potential solutions. Researchers also thematically coded these data. PA levels were measured using standard questionnaires. None of the citizen scientists owned a car, and their PA was either work- or transport-related. Themes identified as priorities that hindered citizen scientists’ PA were dirt, sidewalks appropriated by vendors or homeowners, parks and gym vandalisation, and personal safety fears. Access to stadiums and parks enabled PA. Citizen scientists identified their local councillors and street committee chairpersons as fundamental for advocacy for a PA-friendly environment. Low-income community members can be empowered to gather meaningful data using mobile technology and work together to identify potential solutions for promoting PA-friendly environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Active living
• Our Voice
• community-based participatory research
• neighbourhood features
• advocacy

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge those that funded this study and those whose generous support facilitated this research. We would like to thank all the citizen scientists, researchers and fieldworkers for partaking and helping with this study, without their assistance and willingness to participate and give of their time, we would not have been able to conduct this important work. The authors are grateful to have worked with such engaged citizen scientist co-researchers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Feyisayo A. Odunitan-Wayas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0966-3834

Sharief Hendricks http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3416-6266

Estelle V. Lambert http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4315-9153

Additional information

Funding

Dr. King was supported in part by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation [Grant ID #7334], NIH National Cancer Institute Grants [grant numbers 5R01CA211048 and P20CA217199], the Nutrilite Health Institute Wellness Fund provided by Amway to the Stanford Prevention Research Center, Silicon Valley Community Foundation [award #101518] and a grant from the Discovery Innovation Fund in Basic Biomedical Sciences from Stanford University.