Environmental and policy approaches to promoting PA Flashcards
What are the two components of an environment
Build a physical environment
What is the built environment
Man-made structures that influence opportunities for PA positively or negatively
What is the physical environment
Built structure as well as other physical supports or barriers to PA in the natural environment
How is health related to the physical environment
People will choose to participate in PA or not depending on the quality of the water and air, the type of housing they have, the roads they have access to and the safety of all of these
Besides the health care system, are other sectors involved in promoting PA with the environment? explain?
Yes, sectors like transportation need to make sure the amenities are accessible while being active
What is the PA definition of access
Enhance access to places that promote PA. It is an evidence-based strategy for increasing PA and exercise in a community
What is geographic access
features of the built environment
How is geographic access measured
Availability: Number of parks nearby
Accessibility: Ease of reaching the park
What is economic access
having the means to get into certain parks (if there’s an entrance fee)
Is building new places to be active sufficient? What else is needed if not?
No, it is not sufficient. People need to be aware of the facilities they have access to. (informational outreaches)
Physiological and behavioural results are in favour of […] in studies with […]
Increased PA
Increased access
What are 2 ways that PA can be influenced by the environment
Urban design and land use policies
What are urban design and land use policies dependant of?
they have to be community dependent facilities
do we maximize and minimize when thinking of urban design and land use policies
Maximize PA options
Minimize risk of danger while being active
What is land use policy
Management, planning an development of land, also called zoning
What is urban design
Form, function and outward appearance of the physical environment
Where is urban design used
Neighbourhoods
Towns
Cities
Communities
What are examples of applying community-scale urban design
connecting transportation arteries
Creating landscaping and ligthing to increase perceived safety
Incentives (tax) for developers to increase walkability
Implement programs
With community scale urban design, what are the PA outcomes
Physical and built environment can improve levels of PA for an average of 160%
What are the to ways to measure urban design
Connectivity: how easy it is to get from one place to another in a given neighbourhood
Walkability: How easy it is to walk as transportation based on the environment
What is street scale urban design
changes to the built and physical environment in a smaller geographic areas
What are the strategies for street scale urban design
- Enhancements for pedestrians (crossings, sidewalks)
- Traffic calming
- Safety strategies (bicycle lanes, repair and maintain)
With appropriate street scale changes, PA can be expected to […]
increase by 35%
Changes done to an environment depend on […]
the neirghbourhood that is targeted
What is important when measuring the built environment
determine the baseline to understand the effectiveness of the changes made
How can we measure the built environment
- self-reported perceptions
- Direct observation
- Secondary analysis techniques
Pros and cons of self-report
Pros: Information from large populations and inexpensive to administer
Cons: Respondents’ bias based on their personal situations and health status
Pros and cons of direct observations
Pros: More standardized and less prone to bias
Cons: More expensive and more personnel needed
Pros and cons of Geographic information systems (GIS)
Pros: less expensive, used in large areas, merging of studies, determine specific supports or barriers
Cons: the different resources are not standardized in their method of collecting data.
Environmental approaches to physical activity promotion must result from some kind of…
Policy change
What is the chain of effects of policy changes
- Change physical activity behaviours
- Change health
- Change healthcare costs
Policies can include:
- Formal written codes (zoning)
- Regulations
- Court decisions
- Non-legal policies (standards that are accepted and written)
- Unwritten social norms (usually based on culture)
- Social groups
