Eco-RESIDE: An economic evaluation of urban design as a means of promoting physical activity

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The significance of this project lies in the health problem that it seeks to address and the intervention that is being evaluated. Physical inactivity ranks second only to tobacco use in terms of the costs of diseases associated with behavioural risk factors. Declining rates of physical activity have been associated with increasing rates of obesity and overweight in Australian children and adults. The association that one sees between features of the urban environment and physical activity levels suggests that urban planning guidelines may be a cost-effective means of promoting health and achieving other social objectives such as sustainable use of natural resources. Furthermore, not enough is known about the economic value of investing in health promoting interventions and this project is among the first to measure the costs and benefits of intervening at the environmental level. The information that it provides will be highly useful for local government and health service planners alike.