Research Article Understanding Barriers and Facilitators to Healthy Eating and Active Living in Rural Communities

Copyright © 2014 Rebecca Seguin et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Studies demonstrate that people’s food and physical activity (PA) environments influence behavior, yet research examining this in rural communities is limited. Methods. Focus groups of 8–15 women were conducted in rural communities in seven US states. Questions were designed to identify factors within residents ’ food and PA environments they felt helped or hindered them from eating healthfully and being physically active. Results. Participants were aged 30–84 years; mean (SD) = 61 (14)