Will moving into social and affordable housing in the Athletes' Village increase family physical activity levels? Evaluation of a natural experiment

人们认为你住的地方对你的健康有影响；这通常被认为是生活在较差环境中的人健康状况不佳的一个原因。多年来，有许多大规模的住房更新项目，旨在改善生活在低成本住房中的人们的生活条件和生活方式。然而，这些项目都是长期的（通常需要十年左右才能完成），因此很难证明它们对生活方式的影响，而不是随着时间的推移而发生的影响。建筑环境对身体活动水平的影响尤其令人感兴趣，因为较高的身体活动水平对广泛的健康结果有有益的影响。2012年伦敦奥运会（从2013年开始）后，奥运村提供了社会和经济适用房的具体规定，提供了一个独特的机会来研究“建筑环境”是否以及如何影响进入该地区的成人和儿童的身体活动模式和体型。我们将在村庄住宿可用之前招募一组家庭，并跟踪那些搬进村庄的家庭，并将2年内未搬进村庄的家庭的体育活动模式进行比较。我们将从可步行性、交通便利性、使用便利性等方面衡量建筑环境的使用情况，以及对当地环境的看法如何影响其使用，例如对安全、社会互动和凝聚力等的感知水平。身体活动模式将使用精确的运动传感器进行评估，身体大小将使用生物电阻抗进行客观测量。将采用地理定位系统来追踪对当地环境的利用模式。虽然干预的短时间尺度是独一无二的，但研究结果将具有普遍性，为未来在其他地方进行的住宅开发设计提供信息。该提案的公共价值关键在于：(i)基于证据的政策需要证据来证明环境变化是否真的有利于居民；（二）与建造成本和潜在的健康效益相比，诸如拟议的评估的成本很小；（三）人口中广泛分布的微小变化有可能带来重大的健康惠益；这种好处只能通过精心设计的自然实验评价来确定。最后，我们认识到传播我们的调查结果的重要性；我们相信，我们提议的传播途径，包括一个利益相关者论坛，包括我们广泛的联系网络确定的个人，将提供这一点。

It is assumed that where you live has an impact on your health; this is often given as a reason for poor health amongst those living in less privileged surroundings. There have been a number of large-scale housing regeneration projects over the years, which aim to improve the living conditions and lifestyles of those living in low cost housing. However, these projects are long-term (often taking a decade or so to complete), making it difficult to demonstrate effects on lifestyle above those taking place over time. Effects of the built environment on physical activity levels are of particular interest as higher physical activity levels have a beneficial impact on a wide range of health outcomes. The specific provision of social and affordable housing provided by the Athletes' Village after the London 2012 Olympic Games (available from 2013) offers a unique opportunity to examine whether and how the 'built environment' affects physical activity patterns and body size in adults and children moving into the area. We will recruit a cohort of families before the Village accommodation becomes available, and follow up those that move into the Village, and compare physical activity patterns with those in families that do not move to the Village over a 2 year period. We will measure how the built environment is used in terms of walkability, ease of access, convenience of use etc., and how perceptions of the local environment influence its use, e.g. perceived levels of safety, social interactions and cohesion etc. Physical activity patterns will be assessed using accurate movement sensors, body size will be measured objectively using bio-electrical impedance. Geographical positioning systems will be employed to trace patterns of use of the local environment. While the short time scale of the intervention is unique, the findings will be generalisable, informing future design of residential developments that are destined to take place elsewhere. The key to public value of the proposal is that: (i) evidence based policy requires evidence on whether environmental changes thought to benefit residents actually do; (ii) the cost of evaluations such as that proposed is small compared to the costs of building and compared to the potential health benefit; (iii) small changes distributed widely in the population have the potential to deliver major health benefits; (iv) such benefits can only be identified by carefully designed evaluations of natural experiments. Finally we recognize the importance of disseminating our findings; we believe our proposed pathway to dissemination, including a stake holder forum including individuals identified by our extensive network of contacts, will provide this.