Issue 11: April 2007

The Built Environment and Physical Activity: What is the Relationship?

Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., contributing to more than 100,000 deaths annually and a growing burden of chronic disease. Traditionally, interventions to increase physical activity and combat obesity have targeted individual behavior change through education and promotion. There is increasing recognition by researchers and public health leaders, however, of the need to expand the focus of interventions to the environments and contexts in which poor nutrition and lack of activity occurs. This focus has spawned a relatively new body of research examining the role of the community “built environment” in promoting or discouraging physical activity.

While the research to date explores the associations between environmental characteristics and activity, the ultimate interest in this area of research is to determine if changes to the built environment could promote greater activity in America’s communities. By affecting whole communities, not just individuals enrolled in a particular intervention or educational effort, these changes have the potential to create broad-based and lasting population impact.

This research synthesis examines what we know about how the physical or built environment affects activity and outlines the potential policy implications of these findings.

Some Key Questions Addressed in This Issue:

• What is the association between the built environment and physical activity?
• Does the association between the built environment and activity vary across subgroups?
• What is the impact of the built environment on health?

Download Our Products:

Policy Brief (162 KB)
Research Synthesis Report (263 KB)
Charts