Trends in Presentations of Environmental and Policy Studies Related to Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity at Society of Behavioral Medicine, 1995–2010: a Commentary to Accompany the Active Living Research Supplement to Annals of Behavioral Medicine

with a primary mission of building evidence on the role of environmental and policy factors in shaping physical activity, with the goal of contributing to new approaches to promoting physical activity that would have broad reach and sustainable effects [1].The assumption was that little research was being done at that time on environmental and policy factors, because physical activity research was based on theories and models that emphasized psychological and social influences on behavior [e.g., 2-4], leading to interventions largely targeted to individuals and small groups.Active Living Research was explicitly based on ecological models that embody the concept of multiple levels of influence on behaviors, including built environments and policies.Though ecological models have a long history in psychology and health promotion, they had not been applied frequently in research [5,6].A defining principle of ecological models is that because behavior is influenced by intrapersonal (e.g., biological, psychological, and affective), interpersonal (e.g., social support and culture), built environment (e.g., access to resources), and