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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Physical activity

Evidence-Based Examples

Updated/reviewed July 2024

  • Need: Few older adults, particularly women and those in rural areas, participate in healthy living interventions.
  • Intervention: Health educators lead community-based healthy living classes, which include strength training, aerobic exercise, dietary skill building, and/or civic engagement, depending on the program.
  • Results: StrongPeople™ programs have been shown to improve weight, diet, physical activity, strength, cardiovascular health profile, physical function, pain, depression, and/or self-confidence in midlife and older adults.

Effective Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed November 2018

  • Need: To reduce obesity among adults in rural east central Ohio.
  • Intervention: Fit for Life Replication Project for Expansion was developed to make it possible to lose weight through practicing healthier lifestyle behaviors.
  • Results: Out of the 443 adults who have completed the program, 81% experienced weight loss, a tangible result of the program's overarching goal to enhance levels of health and fitness.

Promising Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed August 2024

  • Need: An ongoing health need to alleviate early childhood obesity in the rural Kansas counties of Marshall and Nemaha.
  • Intervention: 5 distinct physical and nutritional programs were introduced to 9 preschool sites through the overarching Healthy Early Learning Project (HELP).
  • Results: HELP comprehensively increased children's physical activity and healthy food consumption and established a sustainable presence at each preschool site.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

  • Need: To improve access to healthy food and physical activity in rural Alabama.
  • Intervention: Researchers hold focus groups with community members to identify issues of the most concern and then help them implement appropriate interventions like installing playground equipment.
  • Results: From 2014 to 2018, 14 coalitions implemented 101 interventions in 16 communities.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed December 2019

  • Need: To educate youth about obesity and healthy lifestyle choices.
  • Intervention: An educational program about healthy living was implemented in Lincoln and Claiborne Parishes in Louisiana for youth ages 9-18.
  • Results: Youth4Health program produced greater awareness and participation in healthier lifestyles by target youth and their families, as well as church congregations.

Other Project Examples

Added January 2025

  • Need: Rural cancer survivors report lower levels of physical activity and higher rates of psychosocial distress compared to their urban counterparts.
  • Intervention: Researchers collaborated with a rural-serving organization in northeast Texas to test a 3-month intervention which enhanced an existing exercise program with behavioral health education, yoga, and home-based exercise components.
  • Results: Program participants were twice as likely to report meeting physical activity recommendations at post-intervention than participants in a control group and reported significant reductions in psychosocial distress.

Added January 2025

  • Need: To increase physical activity and quality of life in rural Cuba, New Mexico.
  • Intervention: Step Into Cuba works to make the community more pedestrian-friendly by creating and improving hiking trails and other places to walk.
  • Results: This program has led to new or improved trails, sidewalks and crosswalks, lighting on streets, walking groups, and walking events, among other achievements.

Updated/reviewed September 2023

  • Need: Improved health outcomes for Monadnock Region, a rural area of New Hampshire.
  • Intervention: A wide-scale effort across multiple sectors is aiming to improve health outcomes throughout the region.
  • Results: Community health trends have been tracked over time, and progress on goals such as increasing the number of residents with healthcare coverage, opportunities for physical activity, access to healthy foods, and smoking cessation has been made.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

  • Need: To increase students' levels of physical activity, engagement in learning, and academic achievement.
  • Intervention: With The Walking Classroom, students take a brisk walk as a group while listening to a kid-friendly, custom-written educational podcast that aligns with the curriculum.
  • Results: Children increase their activity level while learning academic content, building health literacy, and developing healthy lifestyle habits to prevent obesity and improve cognitive function and retention.

For examples from other sources, see: