WHAT IS PROJECT GUIA?

Project GUIA (Guide for Useful Interventions for Activity in Brazil and Latin America) was initiated in October 2005 to examine and promote evidence-based strategies to increase physical activity in Brazil and Latin America. GUIA ("guide" in Portuguese and Spanish) was designed to complement the US Community Guide. The project is a cross national and transdisciplinary collaboration between partners in the United States and Brazil, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, the Federal University of Sao Paulo, the Pan American Health Organization, and other important organizations at the national level in Brazil such as the Ministry of Health, CELAFISCS, and top research universities (i.e. Federal University of Pelotas and Pontiff Catholic University of Parana). The mission of Project GUIA is to assess evidence-based strategies for promoting physical activity at the community level in Brazil and Latin America.

Since it's beginning the project has conducted scholarly research in the area of community-based physical activity promotion in Latin America. GUIA is a special interest project coordinated by the Prevention Research Center in St Louis and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project has received a new grant to fund four additional years and continue project activities, beginning in September 2009.

WELCOME TO PROJECT GUIA...

Physical inactivity, much like obesity, is a complex problem that needs to be addressed at multiple levels and among many different disciplines. Partnerships that bring together diverse people and organizations have the potential for developing new and creative ways of dealing with physical inactivity. To establish a guide for useful physical activity interventions in Latin America similar to the (Community Guide), project GUIA has assembled a cross national and multidisciplinary team to assess and evaluate the current evidence on community based physical activity interventions. Since its beginning in 2005, the project has completed a systematic review of the literature (published in three different languages in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine) and evaluated two physical activity interventions in community settings in Brazil. Results from one of these evaluations were published in the American Journal of Public Health. Results from the second evaluation will be published in the American Journal of Public Health and in a special issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.

The project has established and built strong cross-national, collaborative relationships with researchers, practitioners, and institutions in Brazil and Latin America and conducted several international internships involving students, staff and researchers from Latin America and the United States. The project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was awarded a second grant to continue four more years of GUIA activities beginning in September 2009. Continuing activities will include a large component of active dissemination of the products from the project, an update of the prior systematic review with a special focus on external validity, evaluations of two more community physical activity interventions and the use of methods like concept mapping, social network analysis and surveys among primary care personnel practitioners, researchers and project partners to further understand physical activity promotion in Brazil.