FPG Snapshot
#22 December, 2004
This Snapshot is based on “Community Design: The Next Step to an Active Society” by Philip Bors of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, Mary Altpeter of the Institute on Aging at UNC-Chapel Hill, Karen Luken of the National Center on Disability & Health at FPG Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Victor Marshall of the Institute on Aging at UNC-Chapel Hill. The article was published in The Journal on Active Aging (2004), Vol. 3(1), pp. 24-30.
Community Design:
The Next Step To An Active Society?
Why an Active Environment Is Important
An active lifestyle is particularly important as we age because physical inactivity and obesity among older adults contribute to preventable diseases, reduced quality of life and premature death.
In 2001, the physical activity profile for older adults was mixed:
• Adults ages 65 and older were the age group most likely (36%) to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendation of at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity on most days of the week.
• Unfortunately, the 65-and-up age group also had the highest inactivity rates (30%).
• Among 50-64 years olds, 29% achieved the recommended levels of activity, but about one in four were inactive.
• Similarly, adults with disabilities were more likely to be physically inactive and overweight than those without disabilities.
Older adults in both age categories have shown a modest, but encouraging, reduction in inactivity during the past decade.
To have a bigger impact on older adults’ well-being and to help them live more actively, health and wellness professionals must help increase routine physical activity levels among older adults. One new direction involves promoting active living through community design.
Key Features Of An Active Environment
LAND USE PATTERNS
Local governments can restrict or encourage certain types of development through zoning. A sprawling community is more difficult to move through using active forms of transportation, i.e., walking and bicycling.
But a walkable community has various destinations near each other than make it more feasible to in-corporate physical activity in daily routines.
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
This system can accommodate active transportation by providing:
• sidewalks and bikeways
• narrow streets and intersections that are safer for older adults to cross
• crosswalks
• pedestrian caution signs
• walk signals that are well timed
PARKS, TRAILS AND GREENWAYS
A 2001 study confirmed what seems intuitive: People living near parks are more likely to use them.
FITNESS CENTERS AND
WELLNESS FACILITIES
Researchers have found a link between the number of fitness centers in Northern Ireland and overall community physical activity rates.
Ideally, health and fitness centers would be part of a walkable and bikeable network of places that invite and enable older people to move through their community actively.
ADVOCACY
Advocates for health and wellness need to engage community partners. Collaborations should include transportation officials, city planners, landscape architects, recreation professionals and public health professionals as well as service organizations that typically serve older adults.
Once collaborations exist, the partners can choose from many strategies to promote health and activity in their communities.
On a smaller scale, individual health and wellness organizations can collaborate with others to improve their physical environments and implement strategies to encourage activity.