[getsmart-l] People living in older neighbourhoods are less likely to be overweight !!

[John O'Gorman]

"Older Neighbourhoods" are "Jane Jacob's" neighbourhoods - short blocks, mixed use, WALKABLE, promoting sociability and appealing to the eye, to the foot  and the mind. Most developers and planners seem to have been blinded to the obvious multiple good effects. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080730.NEIGHBOUR30/TPStory/?query=old+house
HEALTH

THE OLD-HOUSE DIET
REBECCA DUBE Globe and Mail July 30, 2008

Want to lose weight? Move to an old house.

People living in older neighbourhoods are less likely to be overweight than new-home dwellers, according to a study to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 

For every decade added to their neighbourhood's age, women's risk of obesity decreased 8 per cent and men's obesity risk fell 13 per cent. Researchers found that people with old homes are slimmer because old neighbourhoods are more walkable.

"The data show that how and where we live can greatly affect our health," Ken Smith, co-author of the study and a professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah, said in a news release. His study examined height and weight data from the driver's licences of 453,927 residents in Salt Lake County and compared them with census data on median housing age.

The research doesn't mean all hope is lost for new neighbourhoods, Dr. Smith said, rather that developers should take their cues from the past to make it easy for people to walk around.

"We have the opportunity ... to create neighbourhoods that encourage less car driving, benefiting residents' health and wallets and shrinking our own carbon footprint," Dr. Smith said.


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You might also be interested in the following article:

Environmental and policy interventions to promote physical activity

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VHT-3VY0GMM-9&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e6c21d5b5f02eb364122fbeabf33215d
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