Physical Activity and Active Transportation

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Physical Activity and Active Transportation
Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research
Institute - www.cflri.ca -
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• Physical activity and health
• The role of active transportation
• Active transportation research resources
• Promoting and advocating for active transportation

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Physical Activity and Health

• Cost of inactivity
• Benefits of Activity
• Recommended Amounts
• Participation Rates

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Cost of Physical Inactivity

Total 5.3 billion
1.6 billion
3.7 billion
Direct costs include medical costs to treat
coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke,
breast cancer, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and
osteoporosis. Indirect costs include the value of
economic output lost because of illness,
injury-related work disability, or premature
death.
Katzmarzyk Janssen. Can J Appl Physiol
20042990-115.
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Physical Activity and Health Benefits

• ? All cause mortality
• ? Cardiovascular disease
• ? Some cancers
• ? Hypertension
• ? Osteoporosis
• ? Musculoskeletal fitness and health
• Mental health
• Functioning and independent living in later life

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How much is enough?

• 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise (e.g.,
  brisk walking) on most days of the week
• significant reductions in all-cause and
  cardiovascular related mortality
• lower risk of hypertension
• Even higher durations
• lower risks of colon and breast cancer
• maintenance of body mass / prevention of weight
  gain
• Resistance and flexibility improvement
• improved musculoskeletal fitness
• reduced risk of osteoporosis
• helps control of hypertension
• Limit television watching to less than 10 hours
  per week.

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Physical Activity and Health

• 49 Canadian adults are at least moderately
  active
• 35 are overweight and 16 are obese
• about 60 report very good overall health
• 8 report Type 2 diabetes
• nearly 3 in 10 report high blood pressure
• 1 in 10 report heart disease

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Active Transportation as a source of Physical
Activity

• Fits into everyday life
• Environmental benefits
• Social benefits
• Economic benefits

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The Role of Active Transportation

• Walking and cycling
• accessible,
• prevalent
• popular
• Along with public transport
• environmentally friendly
• sustainable

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Environmental Impact of Motorized Transportation
Dependency

Green house Gas Emissions
Urban Sprawl
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Social Capital

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Economic Benefits

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Active Transportation Research and Resources at
CFLRI

• Active Transportation Bulletins
• Research File Lifestyle Tips
• National Population Surveys
• Active Living Potential Measurement
• Publication in Peer Reviewed Journals

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Active Transportation Bulletins

• Elevator Speech documents
• Facts, and quotes for professionals and community
  members who want to build a case for active
  transportation in their community
• Intended to increase knowledge on the link with
  each topic and active transportation
• Share with
• municipal council members
• municipal staff responsible for land-use
  planning, transportation, public utilities,
  social services, parks, recreation and building
  codes

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Active Transportation Bulletins

• No 1 Health Benefits
• No 2 Barriers
• No 3 Economic Benefits
• No 4 Environmental Benefits
• No 5 Built Infrastructure
• No 6 Safety
• No 7 Increasing Social Capital
• No 8 Role for Municipal Decision Makers

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Research File and Lifestyle Tips

• Recent research in physical activity and healthy
  living
• The Research File
• practitioners
• Lifestyle Tips
• general public

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Recent Topics of Interest

• Sedentary Behaviours / Simple Steps to an Active
  New Year (January 2009)
• Active Transportation (April 2009)
• Policy Advocacy (July 2009)
• Health Benefits of Physical Activity for Adults
  (August 2009)
• Public Transit and Physical Activity (September
  2009)

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Population SurveysPhysical Activity Monitor

• Current situation and a system for tracking
  change
• Assess overall change and potential impact of
  policies and strategies
• Incorporates findings and recommendations from
  the published literature

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Physical Activity Monitor

• Prevalence of walking and cycling
• Supportive physical environments
• Proximity to amenities    
• Places to walk and bicycle
• Crime rates
• Traffic
• Community infrastructure
• Walking trails   
• Designated bike lanes, trails, paths   
• Recreation trails   
• Designated facilities    
• Commuting
• Active choices for children and for adults

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Physical Activity MonitorWalking and cycling

• 26 of children use active modes of
  transportation to get to school, 13 use mixed
  modes

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National Transportation Survey Changes from 1998
to 2004

• ?walking as a leisure or recreational activity
• ?proportion of people who live within a
  reasonable walking distance (2.5 km) of at least
  one routine destination
• ?walking to a routine destination at least
  sometimes, but decrease in doing so at least half
  the time
• ?cycling for leisure and recreation, and for
  utilitarian travel

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National Transportation Survey Adult Canadians

• Would like to walk and cycle more
• Feel that governments have a role to play in
  supporting active transportation
• Agree that they have pleasant places to walk near
  their home
• Are uneasy about traffic safety when it comes to
  cycling

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National Transportation SurveyChildren

• Half do not walk to school
• Three-quarters do not cycle to school
• Parents say the school is too far
• Safety is somewhat of a concern
• an improvement in safety would not change the
  likelihood that child would travel to school
  using an active mode

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Walking or Wheeling to Routine Destinations in
the previous twelve months

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Reasons to Walk or Cycle for Transportation

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Facilitating Walking

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Facilitating Cycling

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Neighbourhood Active Living Assessment Potential
Score

• Scientifically valid and reliable tool that
  measures
• Activity friendliness
• Safety
• Density of destinations
• Numerous studies published in peer reviewed
  Journals

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Advocacy

• Political
• Media
• Professional mobilization
• Community mobilization
• Mobilization from within

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Political Advocacy

• Build relationships with key policy makers
• Identify a political champion
• Construct arguments around a governments
  existing policy priorities
• Focus arguments for physical inactivity
  interventions on relevance across government
  sectors
• Develop presentations
• Invite and involve politicians

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Media Advocacy

• Develop and strengthen links with media contacts
• Identify and use high profile champions
• Frame media physical activity messages across a
  diversity of public issues
• Use a variety of media
• Develop message consistency and sound bites
• Conduct research to support media stories
• Identify human interest angles
• Seek and present photo opportunities

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Professional Mobilization

• Strengthen links with professional allies
• Lead networks development
• Use conferences/meetings/symposia
• Conduct targeted workforce development and
  training
• Encourage and support workforce advocates
• Equip professionals with arguments regarding
  current issues, new evidence and breaking news to
  ensure that the messages are consistent and well
  informed.

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Community Mobilization

• Mobilize participants in programs
• Establish and strengthen ongoing links with local
  government
• Engage and support NGOs
• Encourage and support community members as
  advocates
• Recognize/reward successful individuals and
  programs
• Attempt to shift norms
• Build into community events

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Advocacy from Within

• Prioritise physical activity in strategic plans
• Recruit sympathetic board and committee members
• Set an example to other organisations
• Run programs in your workplace and engage the
  leaders
• Internal promotion through newsletters, e-news,
  e-mail
• Arrange praise from outside organizations

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Uses of CFLRI Resources

• Links from other websites
• Newsletters
• Workshops
• Handouts

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Uses of CFLRI Resources

I often have the need to promote active
transportation to other manager colleagues and
the need for flexibility and barrier removal for
their staff. Being able to provide credible
concise documents from CFLRI will strengthen my
arguments.
I guess I see the fact sheets as a credible
source of information that almost anybody can use
to create and reinforce arguments for what I see
as a very important opportunity to get people
more active.
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Summary

• Active transportation contributes to our
  physical, social and economic well being
• Active transportation infrastructure make it the
  easy choice
• There are opportunities to increase active
  transportation supports
• Advocacy can help make this happen

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• Thank You!
• - www.cflri.ca -