Study: Walkable Communities Lead to Increased Physical Activity

The results of an eight-year study examining whether physical attributes of a community contribute to physical activity have been published in the April 2009 volume of Social Science and Medicine. Researcher Jim Sallis, funded by the National Institutes of Health, evaluated 32 communities in the Seattle WA and Baltimore MD regions and found those who lived in walkable neighborhoods got substantially more exercise each week than those living in low-walkable areas. Residents of walkable communities were also less likely to be overweight or obese. USA Today provides more details on the study. The findings are available to purchase online.