2.2. Built Environment Audits

In each town, we used a reliable community asset inventory tool [31], Inventories for Community Health Assessment in Rural Towns (iCHART), to assess active living characteristics related to physical activity opportunities. The tool organizes built environment characteristics into 11 categories: the presence of retail business, professional services, community services, town amenities, physical activity facilities, town aesthetics, condition of sidewalks, condition of the town center, condition of street and intersections, street and intersection safety features, and biking facilities. As mixed land use and active living characteristics are associated with physical activity [8,11], the assessment of these characteristics allows the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the built environment of the study towns. We also assessed the presence of stray animals given previous research indicating their relevance to outdoor activity safety in the midwest United States [18]. The iCHART tool contains a checklist of items that the researcher looks for and documents during the audit. Table S1 shows the individual items assessed within each built environment category.

In all towns, Meredith L. Graham (MLG) and either a local National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) extension agent or another research team member conducted the audits on different days. The audits were completed in two steps: (1) a one-mile walking tour from town center and (2) a four-mile “windshield” tour. The windshield tour allowed for identification of built environment features that were difficult to observe on foot or may not be within walking distance. Discrepancies between audits were discussed for consensus.