Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2017
Pedestrian-oriented zoning is associated with reduced income and poverty disparities in adult active travel to work, United States.
Active travel to work can provide additional minutes of daily physical activity. While the literature points to the relationship between zoning, equity and socioeconomic status, and physical activity, no study has quantitatively explored these connections. This study examined whether zoning may help to moderate any income and poverty inequities in active travel and taking public transit to work. ⋯ S. population located in 471 of the most populous U. S. counties and 2 consolidated cities located in 48 states and the District of Columbia. (Sensitivity analyses also captured unincorporated areas which, with the municipalities, collectively covered ~72% of the U. S.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2017
A longitudinal examination of improved access on park use and physical activity in a low-income and majority African American neighborhood park.
This study sought to evaluate the impact of street crossing infrastructure modifications on park use and park-based physical activity in a low-income and African American community. A five-lane major highway created an access barrier between low-income housing units and the local neighborhood park in Columbia, Missouri. The installation of a signalized pedestrian crosswalk provided an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment to examine the effect of improved safe access upon community active living behaviors. ⋯ However, despite increases in safe access and overall park use, there was a significant decrease in total energy expenditure following the installation of the crosswalk that was sustained in 2014. This study shows that increasing safe access to parks primarily positively influences park use but not park-based physical activity. While improved safe access is encouraging greater park use, there is a need for future research to examine additional factors such as social support, programming and environmental changes to engage community members in park-based physical activity.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2017
Health associations with meeting new 24-hour movement guidelines for Canadian children and youth.
The study objective was to examine whether meeting the new Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines was associated with health indicators in a representative sample of Canadian children and youth. Cross-sectional findings are based on 4157 (1239 fasting subsample) children and youth aged 6-17years from cycles 1-3 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). Sleep and screen time were subjectively measured while moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) was accelerometer-determined. ⋯ Finally, compared to meeting all three recommendations, meeting no recommendations was associated with higher triglycerides and lower HDL-cholesterol (Ptrend<0.05). Collectively, meeting more recommendations within the 24-hour movement guidelines was associated with better overall health. Since a small proportion (17%) of this representative sample was meeting the overall guidelines, efforts to promote adoption are needed.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2017
Shared use agreements between municipalities and public schools in the United States, 2014.
Shared use agreements allow public use of school facilities during non-school hours. Such agreements can cover outdoor facilities alone or may be more comprehensive by also including indoor facilities. Our aim was to: 1) estimate the prevalence of shared use agreements and facility types covered among U. ⋯ Significant differences in prevalence existed by population size, rural/urban status, poverty prevalence, median education level, and census region; however, after adjustment for other municipality characteristics significant differences remained only by population size, median education level, and census region. Among municipalities with a shared use agreement, 59.6% covered both outdoor and indoor facilities, 5.5% covered indoor facilities only, and 34.9% covered outdoor facilities only. Opportunities exist to expand the use of shared use agreements particularly in municipalities with small populations, lower education levels, and in the South, and to promote more comprehensive shared use agreements that include both indoor and outdoor facilities.