The findings by University of Washington and Group Health Cooperative
researchers involved more than 900 elderly Group Health members living in Seattle
and King County. The results could have broad implications for public health
and planning officials throughout the United States, where obesity has been
called an epidemic and as baby boomers start to retire.
"The area around someone's home is an opportunity to walk
if the habitat is right," said Dr. Ethan Berke, lead researcher of the
study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers compared the study participants' self-reported walking
behavior with geographic information relating to the location of their residences,
as well as some 200 directly observable neighborhood attributes, including parks,
streets and foot-and-bike trails, land slope and traffic. Researchers concluded
that the chief factors contributing to an area's walkability were higher residential
density and clusters of destinations such as grocery stores, restaurants and
other services.
Seattle's Maple Leaf, Capitol Hill and Ballard neighborhoods
were considered more walkable, for example, than parts of Crown Hill, Burien,
and other suburban areas where an attractive retail mix was farther from the
study participants' residences.
But Berke said it would be a mistake either to embrace or reject
entire neighborhoods or cities based on the research, because the focus was
always defined by the area immediately around a person's home where they would
be expected to walk as opposed to official neighborhood boundaries.
At the time of the study, which took place over a three-year
period, Berke was with the UW's department of family medicine. He is now at
Dartmouth Medical School.
Dr. Eric Larson, executive director of Group Health's Center
for Health Studies and a co-author of the study, said the research shows you
"have a higher chance of walking for exercise - from 30 percent to 600
percent in some comparisons - when you live in a more walkable neighborhood."
"And you may also be more likely to find yourself with
people who are walking so it can be, or become, a social phenomenon," he
added.
Larson called the findings "potentially important at the
public health level when looking at the obesity epidemic and the epidemic of
inactivity coming down the pike. The results suggest that as a society, we'd
be better if we had more of these kinds of (walkable) neighborhoods."
Berke said the data suggest that habitat differences appear
to make a difference for both older men and older women, though the effect seems
more significant for the former. The study's 936 participants ranged in age
from 65 to 97, with a median age of 78. About 63 percent were classified as
overweight or obese.
The authors conceded they could not say categorically that increased
walking reduces obesity, but also noted that physical activity is believed to
be an important factor for health and weight control. Berke called on other
researchers to replicate the study elsewhere to see if they reach similar results,
or if the Seattle area is unique.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging, the
Centers for Disease Control and the UW Exploratory Center for Obesity Research.
Other UW authors were: Thomas Koepsell, a professor in epidemiology and health
services; Anne Vernez Moudon, professor of urban design & planning, and
Dick Hoskins, clinical associate professor of epidemiology and bioinformatics,
and also an epidemiologist with the Washington state Department of Health.
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