, 2012), three Connect2 projects were selected for detailed study according to criteria including Proteasome inhibitor implementation timetable, likelihood of measurable population impact and heterogeneity of overall mix of sites. These study sites were: Cardiff, where a traffic-free bridge was built over Cardiff Bay; Kenilworth, where a traffic-free bridge was built over a busy trunk road; and Southampton, where an informal riverside footpath was turned into a boardwalk (Ogilvie et al., 2012). None of these projects had been implemented during the baseline survey in April 2010. At one-year follow-up, most feeder
routes had been upgraded and the core projects had opened in Southampton and Cardiff in July 2010. At two-year follow-up, almost all feeder routes were complete and the core Kenilworth project had opened in September 2011. Fig. 1 illustrates the traffic-free bridge built in Cardiff (the ‘core’ project in this setting) plus the feeder routes implemented in 2010 and 2011 (the ‘greater’ network). The baseline survey used the edited electoral register to select 22,500 adults living within 5 km road network distance of the core Connect2 projects (Ogilvie et al., 2012). In April 2010 potential participants were posted
a survey pack, which 3516 individuals returned. These 3516 individuals were posted follow-up surveys in April 2011 and 2012; 1885 responded in 2011 and 1548 in 2012. After excluding individuals who had moved house, the one-year follow-up study BGB324 population comprised 1849 participants (53% retention rate, 8% of the population originally approached) and the two-year study population comprised 1510 (43% retention, 7% of the original population). The University of Southampton Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval (CEE200809-15). Table 1 presents the baseline characteristics examined as predictors of Connect2 use. Past-week walking and cycling for transport were measured using a seven-day recall
instrument (Goodman et al., 2012 and Ogilvie et al., 2012) while past-week recreational walking and cycling were measured by adapting the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (Craig et al., 2003). Most other predictors were similarly self-reported, including height and ADP ribosylation factor weight from which we calculated body mass index (categorised as normal/overweight/obese). The only exception was the distance from the participant’s home to the nearest access point to a completed section of the greater Connect2 infrastructure (calculated separately in 2011 and 2012 to reflect ongoing upgrades: Fig. 1). This was calculated in ArcGIS 9 using the Ordnance Survey’s Integrated Transport Network and Urban Path layers, which include the road network plus traffic-free or informal paths. For ease of interpretation, we reverse coded distance from the intervention to generate a measure of proximity – i.e. treating those living within 1 km as having a higher proximity than those living over 4 km away (Table 1).