One of the New research says “Less Than 25 Percent of
Americans Walk for More Than Ten Minutes Continuously in a Typical Week”.
Many people in the U.S. do not walk, bike or engage in other
forms of active transportation, missing an important opportunity to improve
their cardiovascular health, concludes a new study in the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine.
Active transportation refers to any form of human-powered
transportation, most commonly walking and cycling, but also using a wheelchair,
in-line skating or skateboarding. The study's researchers suggest active
transportation is "an untapped reservoir of opportunity for physical
activity for many U.S. adults."
"We knew that many studies have demonstrated that
physical activity can help prevent a variety of conditions like high blood
pressure, obesity, diabetes and serum lipid abnormalities -- all risk factors
for developing cardiovascular disease," said lead study author Gregg
Furie, M.D. of the Yale School of Medicine, who specializes in adult primary
care medicine. However, the majority of previous studies done on physical
activity primarily focused on its use in recreational activity or leisure time
activity, he noted.
Using cross-sectional data from the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010
cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Furie
and his colleague, Mayur M Desai, Ph.D., associate professor at the Yale School
of Public Health were surprised to find that less than one quarter of U.S.
adults in a nationally representative sample reported walking or bicycling for
transportation for more than 10 minutes continuously in a typical week.
"That's a pretty low rate," said Furie, "and
we need to increase that level." People who engaged in active
transportation on average had lower body mass indexes and lower odds of
hypertension, compared to those who didn't.
The study identified reasons why government policies and
infrastructure, along with "built environment interventions," should
allow and encourage active transportation. Communities that do so may promote
dedicated bicycle lanes and routes, educate residents about bike and motor
vehicle road-sharing, provide bicycle storage, and integrate public
transportation for both pedestrians and cyclists.
The U.S. has one of the lowest rates of active transportation
in the world, said James F. Sallis, Ph.D., chief of the division of behavioral
medicine at the University of California, San Diego."This is not an
accident. U.S. transportation policies and funding prioritize travel by car,
unwittingly discouraging active travel," said Sallis, who is also director
of active living research at UCSD. "This situation is made worse by land
use and zoning policies that separate residential and commercial zones to the
extent that it is not feasible to walk for daily needs. These new findings
point out how transportation policy is health policy."
He called the study "powerful evidence from a large
national sample that active transportation is just as beneficial to health as
leisure-time physical activity. Not surprisingly, the findings highlight that
transportation policies that essentially ignore walking and cycling appear to
be contributing to the major chronic diseases that account for 80 percent of
healthcare costs."
There's a need for better understanding of the overall
benefits of active transportation, Furie said. "This information adds to
the weight of evidence that suggests more work is necessary to develop
environmental policies that make it safer, easier, and more desirable for
people to walk and bike for transportation."
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1013888
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