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Making the Health Argument to Boost Walkability

Alliance for Biking & Walking

Mutual Aid Conference Call

Date & time

Wednesday, May 8, 20132:00 3:00 PM eastern time

Facilitator: Mary Lauran HallCall-in: (712) 432 - 9998, code 573985#

Description

Walking is one of the best ways to stay healthy. Regular physical activity, like walking, hasbeen shown to lower the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, arthritis andosteoporosis. Walking also helps keep weight in check and can be more effective atboosting your mood than antidepressants. Public health researchers have long recognizedthat walkable neighborhoods have the power to increase regular physical activity, havinga hugely positive affect on overall public health. Given the urgent need for more adults to

practice regular physical activity, it is more essential than ever that advocates andcoalitions work together to implement policy- and infrastructure-based solutions toimprove walkability in our neighborhoods. On this call, researchers and advocates willshare the latest convincing research on how walkable neighborhoods affect public healthand discuss how advocates have used health arguments to win better walking.

Panelists

Dr. Brian E. Saelins, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and BehavioralSciences, Seattle Children's Hospital

Dr. David Sabgir, PhD, Cardiologist and Founder of Walk With a Doc Hillary Borcherding, Communications Manager, WalkBoston

Agenda

2:00 PM

Call structure / housekeeping and introduction from Mary Lauran

2:05 2:40 PM

Insight from panelists

Dr. Brian Saelins: research highlights about walkability and health

Walking is a critical component of physical activity and should be a strong focusof interventions for physical activity and healtho Most American adults failing to meet recommendations for physical

activity associated with health; those who do are often walking to do ito Some emerging evidence that walking makes up a larger percentage of

overall physical activity than previously thought (see Kang et al., 2013Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Walking Objectively

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Measured: Classifying Accelerometer Data with GPS and Travel Diaries;in this study, nearly 59% of all physical activity was walking)

o Recent call from Surgeon General about input regarding the importance ofwalking

There are many aspects of built environment that encourage or discouragewalking among adults

o Strongest relationships found between having nearby destinations andwalking

Density (making things nearby) Land use mix (having non-residential destinations) Transit (an accumulation of walk trips)

Active travel to school is an important contributor to childrens physical activityo Evidence that walking to/from school does not decrease types of physical

activity; it is an add (Cooper 2005AJPM)

o Evidence that children switching from car transport to walking to/fromschool increase physical activity, while those going in the opposite direct

decrease their overall physical activity (UK study by Cooper 2012Medicine

and Science in Sports and Exercise)

o Active travel is primary determined by built environment (distance toschool from childs home) and route aspects (e.g., safe, no major crossings,

etc)

Some of our local examples being funded through our CDC-funded CommunityTransformation Grant

oStation area planning for a future light rail station in a suburban area tobetter design for walking/biking

o Health Impact Assessment conducted on a required comprehensive planupdate, with a focus on physical activity

Summaryo Look for opportunities to make physical activity/walking the easiest choice

(most people would make this choice based on the important factors of

time, money, etc)

Resourceso

Active Living Research part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research briefs

(http://activelivingresearch.org/search/site/?f[0]=bundle%3Aresear

ch_briefs_syntheses)

o Alliance for Biking and WalkingDr. David Sabgir

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Who Walk with a Doc is What we do Where Walk with a Docs walks are located Medical perspective How we do it

Hillary Borcherding

At WalkBoston's last Annual Celebration we were pleased to welcome the UnitedStates Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin as our speaker. This event inspiredus to create a presentation and brochure that clearly articulated the correlationbetween good health and walking.

Our Walk Your Way to Health presentation describes the many health benefitsof walking and shows that walking is the closest thing to a magic bullet for health.In developing this presentation we distilled vast amounts of research into adigestible and handy brochure. You can see both our Walk Your Way to Health

slideshow and brochure at www.walkboston.org. Currently we are offering this presentation to our corporate members,

neighborhood groups and employee wellness programs.