I was disappointed to not see any transportation representation on the Task Force. FB

From: Hall, Faith (FTA)
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2017 10:01 AM
To: h+t--friends@chrispy.net
Subject: FW: Task Force Recommends Built Environment and Transportation System Interventions to Increase Physical Activity

FYI –

Subject: Task Force Recommends Built Environment and Transportation System Interventions to Increase Physical Activity

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to announce the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) has issued a new recommendation to increase physical activity through built environment approaches that combine transportation system interventions with land use and environmental design. Based on the huge volume of high quality work you have all done in the last view years related to the intersection of transportation and health, I though you and your colleagues and partners might be interested in these significant new findings and recommendations.

The Task Force recommendation is based on evidence from a systematic review of 90 studies. These studies used diverse designs, assessed and compared different combinations of interventions or existing built environment characteristics, and evaluated longitudinal changes or cross-sectional differences for a wide range of physical activity outcomes.

What does the evidence show?

· Physical activity increases among individuals in communities with new or improved projects or policies combining transportation (e.g. pedestrian or cycling paths) with land use and design components (e.g. mixed land uses or access to public parks).

· Combinations of activity-supportive built environment characteristics are associated with higher levels of transportation-related physical activity, recreational physical activity, and total walking among exposed individuals.

It has become increasingly clear that the public health and medical sectors cannot successfully address the health challenges described below on their own. The Transportation Research Board and the National Academy of Medicine, as well as many of your professional associations (including AIA,  APA, ASCE, ASLA, CNU, ITE, NRPA, and ULI), and the U.S. Surgeon General, supported the Task Force decision’s to review this evidence. Most importantly, the new recommendation recognizes and supports the importance of the transportation, land use, and community design sectors in addressing these critical health challenges.

Why is this important?

Physical inactivity accounts for about 11% of premature deaths in the United States, and $117 billion (in 2012 dollars; 11% of aggregate health care expenditures) annually were associated with inadequate levels of physical activity. Despite the health benefits, only one-half of U.S. adults reported levels of physical activity consistent with the guideline for aerobic physical activity in 2013 (Surgeon General’s Call to Action).

Share the news!

Following are links to more information and promotional materials we hope you will share with your colleagues and any others who may be interested.

§ Intervention Summary—read a summary of the evidence review and Task Force
finding

§ Combined Built Environment Features Help Communities Get Active—include this story in your newsletter, or share the link with colleagues

§ Built Environment One-Pager—use this one-pager as a quick reference

§ Twitter®—retweet @CPSTF messages about the new recommendation or tweet one of the   following examples:

o Evidence supports combined built environment approaches to increase  physical activity: http://bit.ly/2oYW1UT   #TheCommunityGuide

o See #TheCommunityGuide for new findings from @CPSTF about creating better environments for physical activity: http://bit.ly/2oYW1UT

What are the Task Force and Community Guide?

· The Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) is an independent, nonfederal, voluntary panel of public health and prevention experts. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by providing evidence-based recommendations about community preventive programs and services to improve health. Its members represent a broad range of research, practice, and policy expertise in community prevention services, public health, health promotion, and disease prevention.

· The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) is a collection of all the evidence-based findings and recommendations of the Community Preventive Services Task Force and is available online at www.thecommunityguide.org.

We encourage you to visit The Community Guide website at www.thecommunityguide.org. Here you’ll find other recommendations relevant to transportation systems and built environments, as well as supporting resources such as Community Guide in Action stories that feature decision-makers who have used The Community Guide to make their communities safer and healthier. We have also added three websites below to use as additional resources.

Thank you for all that you and your colleagues are doing to support healthy community design efforts and improved transportation systems for all modes and users. We appreciate any help you can give us to spread the word about the Task Force’s new recommendation. Please let me know if there is any way we can assist your efforts. 

CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Program: https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/

Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/stepitup

CDC’s Healthy Places Website: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/