Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs.
Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1186/1476-069x-5-25
复制
发表时间：
2006-09-18
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hynes, H Patricia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lopez, Russell P;Hynes, H Patricia
超重和肥胖的持续趋势导致了对建筑环境、身体活动和超重的快速研究。这项研究的大部分焦点都集中在郊区的设计和形式上。它表明，郊区建筑环境的几个特征，如低密度，街道连通性差和缺乏人行道，与身体活动减少和超重风险增加有关。但与郊区居民相比，内城居民的肥胖率和不活动率更高，尽管他们生活在人口密集的社区，街道连通性很好，街道上几乎都是人行道。我们认为，这种明显的矛盾的原因是植根于复杂的相互作用的土地利用，基础设施和社会因素影响内城人口。有时候，看似相似的特征是非常不同的过程造成的，因此需要采取不同的政策应对这些挑战。例如，在郊区，较低的密度可能是由于政府决策导致限制性分区和土地使用问题。在市中心，由于废弃和撤资，密度可能会降低。在郊区，土地使用法规的变化可能会带来更健康的建筑环境。在内城，增加密度将取决于扭转经济趋势和投资决策，这些趋势和决策系统地导致了住房问题、废弃建筑和空地。这些不同的问题需要在整个城市环境的背景下进一步研究，结合从其他学科，如经济学和社会学，以及突出一些比较成功的内城政策干预措施，这可能为社区努力改善其健康提供范例。城市和郊区人口在肥胖和超重、体育活动和研究重点方面的某些差异已经出现，需要及时解决。城市，特别是内城，社区需要对建筑环境与健康的关系进行比较研究。
Persistent trends in overweight and obesity have resulted in a rapid research effort focused on built environment, physical activity, and overweight. Much of the focus of this research has been on the design and form of suburbs. It suggests that several features of the suburban built environment such as low densities, poor street connectivity and the lack of sidewalks are associated with decreased physical activity and an increased risk of being overweight. But compared to suburban residents, inner city populations have higher rates of obesity and inactivity despite living in neighborhoods that are dense, have excellent street connectivity and who's streets are almost universally lined with sidewalks. We suggest that the reasons for this apparent paradox are rooted in the complex interaction of land use, infrastructure and social factors affecting inner city populations. Sometimes seemingly similar features are the result of very different processes, necessitating different policy responses to meet these challenges. For example, in suburbs, lower densities can result from government decision making that leads to restrictive zoning and land use issues. In the inner city, densities may be lowered because of abandonment and disinvestment. In the suburbs, changes in land use regulations could result in a healthier built environment. In inner cities, increasing densities will depend on reversing economic trends and investment decisions that have systematically resulted in distressed housing, abandoned buildings and vacant lots. These varying issues need to be further studied in the context of the totality of urban environments, incorporating what has been learned from other disciplines, such as economics and sociology, as well as highlighting some of the more successful inner city policy interventions, which may provide examples for communities working to improve their health. Certain disparities among urban and suburban populations in obesity and overweight, physical activity and research focus have emerged that are timely to address. Comparable research on the relationship of built environment and health is needed for urban, especially inner city, neighborhoods.