What the Research Tells Us: The Best Ways to Promote Active Living Barbara McCann September, 2004

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What the Research Tells UsThe Best Ways to
Promote Active LivingBarbara McCannSeptember,
2004
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Whats the Problem?

• Americans are on the move without moving.

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Whats the Problem?

• 60 of adults are at risk for diseases associated
  with inactivity
• obesity diabetes
• heart disease stroke
• some cancers
• depression

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Physical Inactivity

• Contributes to the deaths of about 200,000
  people each year.
• Causes diseases and conditions that cost at least
  77 billion a year to treat.

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Promoting exercise has not worked
Source Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System
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What is Active Living?

• A way of life that integrates physical activity
  into daily routines.

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But can we get people out of their cars?
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We already know

• Urban Form

Affects whether people walk, take transit, drive,
or bicycle
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We already know
Walking Physical Activity
Affects Chronic Diseases
Affects Weight
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We want to know
?
Walking Physical Activity
Urban Form
Affects Chronic Diseases
Affects Weight
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New research abounds
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Obesity and Design

• Each additional half-hour driven each day
  increases obesity risk by 3.
• People with more destinations close to their
  homes are less likely to be obese.

Frank, L. Am. J. Preventive Medicine, 2004
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People living in sprawling counties

• Walk less in their leisure time
• Have higher body mass indexes
• Are more likely to be obese
• Are more likely to have high blood pressure.

Photo Congress for the New Urbanism
Ewing, R. Am. J. of Health Promotion 2003
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What is an Activity-Friendly Environment?

• A place that makes it easy to make the choice to
  be physically active, through planned exercise or
  routine daily activity.

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Research Summaries
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Designing for Active Recreation

• People get more physical activity if their
  neighborhoods provide a high-quality environment
  for outdoor activity.

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Access to facilities

• People living in areas without many public
  outdoor recreation facilities were more likely to
  be overweight.
• Catlin, T.K. Am. J. of Health Promotion
  2003
• The closer people lived to a bikeway, the more
  likely they were to use it.
• Troped P.J.
• Preventive Medicine 2001

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Access to facilities helps people get enough
activity.
within ten minutes of home
Powell, K.E. AJPH 2003
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Walkable neighborhoods make a difference

• Residents in a highly walkable neighborhood
  engaged in about
• 70 more minutes
• per week
• of moderate and vigorous physical activity than
  residents in a low-walkability neighborhood.

Photo Michael Ronkin, ODOT
Saelens, B. AJPH 2003
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Walkable Neighborhoods encourage more walking

• Older women who live within walking distance of
  trails, parks or stores recorded significantly
  higher pedometer readings than women who did not.
  The more destinations that were close by, the
  more they walked.

Photo Michael Ronkin, ODOT
King, W.C. AJPH 2003
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Safety and Weather surprisingly weak evidence

• A literature review of health research found
  little association between crime rates or poor
  weather and sedentary lifestyles.

Photo Michael Ronkin, ODOT
Humpel, N. Am. J. of Preventive Medicine 2002
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Designing for Active Transportation

• Proximity Are there places nearby to walk to?
• Connectivity Are there safe and direct ways to
  make the trip?

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ProximityPeople are more likely to commute to
work on foot or via bicycle if they

• live in a city center
• live close to a non-residential building
• live very close to a grocery or drug store and
• have good access to public transportation.

Cervero, R. Transportation Research Record 2001
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ConnectivityPeople living in areas where more of
the street network is a grid take more trips on
foot.
Illustration Frank, LD Health Community
Design
Greenwald, M.J. Transportation Research Record
2001
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The impact of facilities is less clear in the
research

• A North Carolina study found that the presence of
  sidewalks, trails, and street lights had little
  impact on recreational physical activity.

Huston, S. Am. J. Health Promotion, 2003
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Walkable neighborhoods encourage trips by bike
foot
People in traditional neighborhoods are more
likely to walk to nearby shops.
Handy, S.L. Transportation Research Record 1996
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What about self-selection?

• People shift some trips to transit, bicycling,
  and walking when they move into more walkable
  neighborhoods.
• One-third of residents in sprawling parts of
  Atlanta would prefer to live in a more walkable
  neighborhood.

Krizek, K.J. Transportation Research Record
2000 Frank, L.D. www.smartraq.net 2003
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Walkable neighborhoods have a positive impact on
health

• Middle-aged men who biked or walked to work
  weighed less and gained weight more slowly,
  whether or not they engaged in other exercise.

Wagner, A. Internatl. J. of Obesity Related
Metabolic Disorders 2001
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Walkable neighborhoods have a positive impact on
health

• On average, walkable neighborhoods encourage
  15-30 extra minutes of walking per week,
• enough to lose a pound a year.

Saelens, B.E. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2003
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Active Living Research

• Supports research to learn how we can change the
  design of communities, parks, and buildings to
  make it easier for people to lead active lives.

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Active Living Research

• A project of the Robert Wood
• Johnson Foundation

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Active Living Research

• Measurement
• of the environment
• of activity
• Cross-sectional Research
• comparing places
• Longitudinal Research
• Change over time
• Effectiveness of interventions

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Supported Research Measurement

• How do you measure and record the elements that
  encourage physical activity?
• What elements make a street walkable?
• What technology can be used for accurate data
  collection?

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Supported Research Environment Policy

• What types of communities support active living?
• What types of parks and trails best support
  active living?
• What is the impact of the environment on children
  and people with low incomes?

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Supported Research Effective Interventions

• What happens when people move to a more walkable
  community?
• Are educational interventions more successful in
  activity-friendly environments?

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Supported Research Leveraging Existing Studies

• Adding an international land-use component to the
  International Physical Activity Prevalence Study.
• Adding an environmental component to several
  ongoing U.S. physical activity studies.

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Upcoming Research Areas

• Case studies
• Policy research
• The process of policy change

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The potential to increase active transportation

• More than one-quarter of trips in urban areas are
  a mile or less
• Half of all trips are less than three miles.
• National Household
  Travel Survey

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For More Information

• www.activelivingresearch.org
• www.bmccann.net