Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity? Examining the Evidence -- Special Report 282 (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
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Yet despite the scientific evidence, Americans have not taken sufficient initiative to meet federal guidelines on appropriate levels of total daily physical activity. Fully 55 percent of the U.S.
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The built environment is broadly defined to include land use patterns, the transportation system, and design features that together provide opportunities for travel and physical activity.1 Physical activity is defined as bodily movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscle that increases energy expenditure above the basal level. The built environment can be studied at various geographic scales -- from the building and site to the neighborhood and re gional levels.
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Surgeon General's first report on Physical Activity and Health in 1996. That report and the results of subse quent research confirm that regular physical activity reduces the risk of premature mortality from all causes.
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ROLE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT The built environment is one of many variables thought to affect physical activity levels. The conceptual framework for this study (Figure ES-1)
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Results of this research to date, which has been largely cross-sectional, provide a growing body of evidence that shows an association between the built environment and physical activity levels. The science, however, is not sufficiently advanced to support causal connections or to identify with certainty those characteristics of the built environment most closely associated with physical activity behavior.
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The relationship between the built environment and physical ac tivity is complex and operates through many mediating factors, such as sociodemographic characteristics, personal and cultural variables, safety and security, and time allocation. Whether an individual is physically active is determined largely by his or her capacity, propen sity, and willingness to make time for physical activity.
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However, the findings are not definitive because it is not known whether these characteristics affect a person's over all level of physical activity or just his or her amount of outdoor walking and cycling. Furthermore, the literature has not estab lished the degree of impact of the built environment and its various characteristics on physical activity levels; the variance by location (e.g., inner city, inner suburb, outer suburb)
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CONCLUSIONS Regular physical activity is important for health, and inade quate physical activity is a major, largely preventable public health problem. The committee concurs with the strong and well-established sci entific evidence linking physical activity to health outcomes and supporting reversal of the decline in overall physical activity levels as a public health priority.
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Continuing modifications to the built environment pro vide opportunities, over time, to institute policies and prac tices that support the provision of more activity-conducive environments. The long-term decline in physical activity among the U.S.
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Many opportunities and potential policies exist for chang ing the built environment in ways that are more conducive to physical activity, but the available evidence is not suffi cient to identify which specific changes would have the most impact on physical activity levels and health outcomes. Research has not yet identified causal relationships to a point that would enable the committee to provide guidance about cost beneficial investments or state unequivocally that certain changes to the built environment would lead to more physical activity or be the most efficient ways of increasing such activity.
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· More detailed examination and matching of specific characteristics of the built environment with different types of physical activity to assess the strength of the relationship and the proportion of affectedpopulationsubgroups.Alltypesofphysicalactivityshould be included because there may be substitution among different types. The goal from a public health perspective is an increase in total physical activity levels.
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Similarly, travel surveys, such as the National Household Travel Survey, as well as regional travel surveys, should be geocoded to provide more fine grained geographic detail so researchers can link these surveys and diary data with characteristics of the built environment. In addi tion, data that reflect a more comprehensive picture of physical ac tivity should be provided.
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The federal government should supplement funding provided by foun dations to ensure that this high-payoff research is conducted. The committee encourages the study of a combined strat egy of social marketing and changes to the built environ ment as interventions to increase physical activity.4 The research should be designed to study these approaches both separately and in combination so that the influence of individual 4 Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing techniques to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences so as to improve their personal welfare and that of their society.
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Universities should develop interdisciplinary education programs to train professionals in conducting the recom mended research and prepare practitioners with appropri ate skills at the intersection of physical activity, public health, transportation, and urban planning. Ideally, new interdisciplinary programs should be developed with a core curriculum that brings together the public health, physical ac tivity, transportation, and urban planning fields in a focused pro gram on the built environment and physical activity.
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LOOKING FORWARD The committee believes that research on the relationship between the built environment and physical activity is at a pivotal stage. The number of investigators and studies is growing rapidly; interdisci plinary approaches are being encouraged; and technologies such as the Global Positioning System and geographic information sys tems, pedometers, and accelerometers are now available to provide and link more objective and detailed measures of both the built en vironment and physical activity.
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64436_TRB_021_036 4/25/05 10:15 AM Page 16
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