First Patricia F. Waller Scholarship Awarded

Posted 12/21/2007

Patricia F. Waller Scholarship awarded to Nancy Ambrose Gallagher

The first Patricia F. Waller Scholarship was recently awarded to Nancy Ambrose ("Amby") Gallagher, R.N. and Ph.D. student in the U-M School of Nursing. The scholarship fund honors the late Patricia Waller’s tenure as director of UMTRI (1989 to 1999) and her contributions to the field of transportation safety and injury control. The scholarship funds U-M graduate students who elect a curriculum, thesis, or special project that addresses the human impact of transportation practice.

Gallagher (left) will apply the scholarship to her dissertation, "Environmental Influences on Walking in Older, Urban, African American Adults." Her UMTRI faculty mentor is Lidia Kostyniuk (right), Ph.D., research scientist in UMTRI's Social and Behavioral Analysis Division. The research aims to identify the neighborhood environmental determinants of walking in older African American adults living in urban settings. Despite the benefits of regular physical activity, most adults over age 65 do not participate in any leisure-time physical activity. Those who are physically active most often choose walking as their preferred physical activity. However, certain environmental factors may affect seniors' walking, such as:

• Neighborhood surroundings (buildings, greenery, parks)
• Presence of other people in area (crowds, families)
• Safety from crime (personal victimization, neighborhood crime)
• Presence of public walking tracks or trails (access, attractiveness)
• Presence of animals/wildlife (loose dogs)
• Sidewalks and traffic (sidewalk maintenance, overgrowth)
• Weather (rain, snow, ice)

To date, Gallagher has completed focus group interviews to gather information on environmental influences on walking. The focus groups consisted of twenty-one African Americans age 60 or older, recruited from a Detroit church and senior center. In addition to being interviewed in focus groups, the participants photographed neighborhood characteristics that encouraged or discouraged their walking.

Based on initial data analysis of focus group findings, and review by experts in physical activity, environment, and aging minority populations, Gallagher has modified the questionnaire and pilot-tested a modified version at the recruitment site. For reliability and validity testing, themes identified in the new questionnaire will be added to the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Survey, which will be administered to thirty to forty participants in a study of physical activity and neighborhood environment conducted with U-M postdoctoral fellow Jennifer Robinson (principal investigator). The final survey will then be administered as part of Gallagher’s dissertation research, along with surveys measuring physical activity and psychosocial determinants of physical activity, to 280 older adults with varying levels of functional ability.

The next steps are to examine the salient determinants and identify effective intervention strategies that promote urban neighborhood walking.

Gallagher is a research assistant at the U-M School of Nursing and as a registered adult nurse practitioner at Ann Arbor Family Practice. She holds master degrees in clinical research training from the U-M School of Public Health and in community health nursing from the U-M School of Nursing, as well as a bachelor degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing. She is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Nurses Association, the Midwest Nursing Research Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society.