Officials in Madison launched a project to identify and resolve barriers to bike accessibility. Current Madison city law requires private developers to include bicycle racks in new construction projects. To ensure that the city is holding itself to the same standard, city officials teamed up with the University of Wisconsin to identify all the public bicycle racks in the city, as well as any areas where large volumes of bikes were chained to trees or fences in the absence of bicycle racks. Researchers also evaluated the condition of existing bicycle racks. City officials then tapped Global Positioning System technology to create a virtual map that bikers can use to navigate local bike routes and identify available bike racks. To further improve the city’s bike friendliness, officials have entered the data into a geographical information system that determines the city’s current bike capacity and indicates where improvements are needed.
Archive for category Physical Activity
Food- and activity-related establishments are increasingly viewed as neighbourhood resources that potentially condition health-related behaviour. The objective of the current study was to establish, using on-site verification, the validity of measures of availability of food stores and physical activity establishments that were obtained from commercial database and Internet searches. Such commercial data sources may provide a valid alternative to field observations and could prove a valuable tool in the evaluation of commercial environments relevant to eating behaviour. In contrast, this study did not find strong evidence in support of commercial and Internet data sources to represent neighbourhood opportunities for active lifestyle.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK have found that a walk of just fifteen minutes can reduce chocolate cravings. Following three days of abstinence, 25 regular chocolate eaters were asked to either complete a 15-minute brisk walk or rest, in a random order. They then engaged in tasks that would normally induce chocolate cravings, including a mental challenge and opening a chocolate bar. After exercise participants reported lower cravings than after rest.
Researchers at University of Washington in Seattle followed more than 3,800 low income mainly African American children, 3 to 16 years old, who resided at the same address in Marion, County, Indiana, for 2 consecutive years. Children living in city neighborhoods with higher “greenness” ratings seem to gain less weight over time than their counterparts living in areas with less green space, a new study suggests.
Active transport is strongly associated with the use of multiple recreation sites by children and adolescents, even when accounting for proximity and demographic factors. Adolescents living in neighborhoods with better traffic safety walked/biked to more recreation sites for physical activity. Findings support the need for built environments and transportation policies that facilitate safe, active transport to recreation sites for youth physical activity.
Based on data from 32,269 women the US researchers found that breast cancer risk reduction appeared to be limited to vigorous forms of activity; it was apparent among normal weight women but not overweight women.
156 Californian adult vomen got access to a tailored website and weekly emails or wait-list control group. Participants completed web-based assessments of physical activity, stage of behavior change, and psychosocial variables at baseline, one month, two months, and three months. Walking increased 69 min per week and total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 23 min per week.
Based on 187 studies this review suggest that the measurement method may have a significant impact on the observed levels of physical activity. Self-report measures of physical activity both over and underestimated directly measured levels of physical activity, which poses a problem for both reliance on self-report measures.
In this 22 year longitudinal study researchers from Canada seek to identify long term patterns of involvement in leisure time physical activity, and explore socioeconomic and demographic predictors of physical activity. The results are based on data from 2102 individuals aged 18-60 years in 1981 who also completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2002/04. The researchers conclude that there is a need for continued efforts to increase overall population levels of long term physical activity, particularly among socially disadvantaged groups with respect to income and education.
UK researchers looked at the almost 41 million people in England below retirement age and obtained individual death records for 366,348 people to determine the association between exposure to green space, income, all-cause mortality, and circulatory disease from 2001 to 2005. Physical environments that promote good health are important to reduce for circulatory disease and socioeconomic health inequalities. The study is published November 8th 2008 in The Lancet.