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Designing Communities for Active
Lifestyles
Excerpted from
Designing for Active Recreation (January 2004) by Barbara McCann
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A growing number of studies show that
people in activity-friendly environments are more likely to be
physically active in their leisure time. Consider the following
research findings:
Access to Recreational
Facilities
Several studies have found that people get
more physical activity if they have good access to specific places to
exercise, such as parks, basketball courts, or gyms, and if
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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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their
neighborhoods provide a high-quality environment for outdoor activity. |
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People with access to recreational facilities were twice as likely to
get recommended levels of physical activity.
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People with the best access to a variety of built and natural facilities
were 43% more likely to exercise 30 minutes most days than those with
poor access.
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People living in areas without many public outdoor recreation facilities
were more likely to be overweight.
However, some studies don�t clearly support the hypothesis; for example, a
recent study in North Carolina found that the presence of sidewalks,
trails and street lights had little impact on recreational physical
activity.
Walkable Neighborhoods
"Walkable"
neighborhoods are those where it is possible to walk to common
destinations such as food stores. They are defined by a mix of homes,
stores, connected streets and higher densities.
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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.
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One
study used the age of neighborhoods as a proxy for walkability. People
in neighborhoods built before 1946 were 46% more likely to walk long
distances than people living in homes built after 1974.
Aesthetics and the Social
Environment
The
research has found strong evidence that scenery and the friendliness of
neighbors were linked to physical activity levels. But it is not yet clear
which factors are most important.
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People in Australia who reported they had friendly neighbors and
attractive surroundings close to home were 41% more likely to walk.
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Rural
women in the U.S. were more likely to be sedentary if they reported a
lack of scenery near home.
Safety and Weather
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It is
not clear whether people�s perception of safety affects their
participation in physical activity. Only half of the studies reviewed
found any evidence that unsafe sidewalks and neighborhood crime
discouraged exercise and results within these studies were not
consistent.
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Only
two of the reviewed studies asked about weather and neither found any
correlation between poor weather and sedentary lifestyles. However,
national studies show that adults tend to be most active in the summer
and least active in the winter.
The
full article and citations are available online at:
www.activelivingresearch.org/downloads/recreationrevised021105.pdf.
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