Module:                   Health and liveability

Week 5:                    Planning for Health – Built Environment

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Introduction

As noted in the introduction, for the purposes of this week we are thinking of our built (and natural) living environments and the extent to which they support or discourage physical activity. We are not covering other specific environmental contexts, such as schools or workplaces. Often in physical activity research, we talk of neighbourhood environments: these are the environments with which we interact on a daily basis and are thought to have a profound impact on our health and behaviour.

When you start to look at the literature on this topic, you will see that there is a great deal. We have suggested sources, but please explore beyond these and make the most of the wealth of information.

Task 1: Components of the built environment that can influence physical activity

The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) is a collection of evidence-based findings of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force). In 2016, they produced a very useful systematic review:

Physical Activity: Built Environment Approaches Combining Transportation System Interventions with Land Use and Environmental Design

https://www.thecommunityguide.org/findings/physical-activity-built-environment-approaches

Your first task is to access this website, download and read the Task Force Findings and Rationale Statement and, in your portfolio:

1. List the components of the environment identified as subjects for intervention to increase physical activity, with examples
2. Summarise the main findings from this review of evidence from four types of study
   1. Construction projects
   2. Evaluations of the impact of sprawl or policies restricting sprawl
   3. Comparisons of pre-defined neighbourhood types
   4. Summary score comparisons of existing built environments or comparisons within or across communities)
3. Comment on the relative amount to evidence from these different types of study
4. Comment on the ‘Data Quality Issues’ – what are the main challenges for researchers and associated limitations in the evidence?

Task 2: Neighbourhood ‘walkability’

Your second task is related to walkability, a term you will have encountered already in your reading, and that often features in physical activity-environment research. The following help to familiarise you with the rationale for improving neighbourhood walkability, how walkability is defined and measured, and some evidence linking characteristics of ‘walkable’ environments with physical activity levels.

For each of the following, make notes in your portfolio.

1. Why is walking an attractive physical activity to promote (compared with other types of physical

activity or exercise)?

Possible sources:

• Ogilvie et al. Systematic review of walking interventions [1] http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7605/1204
• Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities [2]

https://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calls/walking-and-walkable-communities/index.html

• CDC Guide to Step it Up! [3]

Download pdf of report here

1. What is walkability and how is it measured?

Note: there is no single standard approach so please use the sources below to define the

concept and summarise the types of neighbourhood characteristics that are often included in 

walkability indices.

Possible sources:

• Leslie et al. [4]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829205000845

• Frank et al. The development of a walkability index [5]

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/13/924.short

• Manaugh et al. [6]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920911000216

• Walkscore

https://www.walkscore.com/score/

• Read Sallis et al. [7] and summarise which natural environment features are most strongly associated with physical activity

Task 3: Walkability of your neighbourhood (or neighbourhood in your chosen city)