Many communities lack safe, adequate places for children and their families to exercise and play. Schools might have a variety of recreational facilities’”gymnasiums, playgrounds, fields, courts, tracks’”but many districts close their property to the public after school hours because of concerns about costs, vandalism, security, maintenance, and liability in the event of injury. Now city, county, and town governments can partner with school districts through what are known as joint use agreements to address these concerns. A formal agreement can set forth the terms and conditions for the shared use of public property. Find the legal tools here.
Archive for category Environment
New research has found that an individual’s personal beliefs about the causes of weight problems are a reliable indicator of whether he or she will support public policies designed to combat the problem. The study surveyed 1,009 people on their views about the causes of obesity and their level of support for 16 policy responses, taking demographics, health characteristics and political attitudes into account.
Multivariate regression models was used to estimate associations between adolescent obesity and proximity of fast-food restaurants to schools for over 500,000 youths in California. The researchers found that students with fast-food restaurants within one half mile of their schools (1) consumed fewer servings of fruits and vegetables, (2) consumed more servings of soda, and (3) were more likely to be overweight or obese than were youths whose schools were not near fast-food restaurants. Exposure to poor-quality food environments has important effects on adolescent eating patterns and overweight. Policy interventions limiting the proximity of fast-food restaurants to schools could help reduce adolescent obesity. See also: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2009/03/influences-on-teenage-obesity-fast-food-proximity/
This 58 page report summarizes state legislation proposed and passed in two broad policy categories (a) Healthy Eating and Physical Activity and (b) Healthy Community Design and Access to Healthy Food. The first category addresses policy approaches aimed primarily at nutrition and physical education in schools. The second category focuses on the built environment: land use, transportation and agriculture options. Enjoy reading.
This study sought to integrate perceived and built environmental and individual factors into the Theory of Planned Behavior model to better understand adolescents’ physical activity. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software was used to measure the physical environment (walkability, access to physical activity facilities). Physical activity was assessed using the ActiGraph accelerometer and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents. 110 youngsters aged 12 to 17 years from Auckland in New Zealand participated. Social cognitive variables were better predictors of both subjective and objective PA compared to perceived environmental and built environment factors.
From 2001 to 2006 the incidence of bicycle-related Emergency Department presentations in Sydney, Australia, rose by 42%, hospital admissions by 16%, and treatment for major trauma by 76%. A Danish study recorded a 39 % reduction in all-cause mortality over a 15 year period for people who cycled to work. So sespite the perceived risks, the benefits are overwhelmingly positive. The authors agree that the increase in injury in the Victorian study does not take account of the increase in the actual number of people riding bikes.
College students were given one of two menus. One menu featured French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato; the other included those same items as well as a salad. 10% af the students exposed to the short menu ordered fries. While 33% of the students exposed to the longer menue (including salads) chose fries. Wow! The research suggests that the presence of healthy options on a menu can induce some diners to eat less healthily than they otherwise would. See also http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/599219
Desk jobs are increasing obesity, with many employees and employers ignorant of the risks of sitting down all day, researchers said on Wednesday.
The plenary sessions from the 20th National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control are now available to be viewed on-demand.
Some interventions are providing information and motivating individuals to modify their behaviors. Other interventions are modifying environmental forces through social policies. There is a tension between empowering individuals to manage their weight through diet and exercise and blaming them for failure to do so. Environments differ in their health-promoting resources; for example, poorer communities have fewer supermarkets, more fast-food outlets, and fewer accessible and safe recreational opportunities. A social justice perspective facilitates a synthesis of both models. The concept of ‘œbehavioral justice’ convey the principle that individuals are responsible for engaging in health-promoting behaviors but should be held accountable only when they have adequate resources to do so. This perspective maintains both individuals’ control and accountability for behaviors and society’s responsibility to provide health-promoting environments.