Greetings TRB Subcommittee friends,
This new toolkit from CDC may be of interest to you.
Cheers,
Eloisa
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The Healthy Community Design Toolkit, a resource and website that provides information and
education materials for individuals, local and public health officials, and planners to
use in creating healthy communities, was released by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Visit the HCDT website at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/toolkit/.
"Your address can play an important role in how long you live and how healthy you
are," said Arthur Wendel, M.D., M.P.H., head of CDC’s Healthy Community Design
Initiative in the National Center for Environmental Health. "The physical design of
your neighborhood affects your health every time you step out your front door. It’s hard
to be physically active when you don’t have access to sidewalks, parks, clean air, or safe
areas, and eating right is hard if healthy foods are not available."
Physical inactivity and obesity are leading risk factors for high blood pressure, type 2
diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. Obese individuals spend 77 percent more money for
necessary medications than non-obese persons. Just as characteristics of the environment
create unsafe conditions or foster chronic diseases, certain aspects of the environment
may promote health and well-being. For example, "designing walking trails and popup
farmers markets throughout our communities can promote increased physical activity and
healthy eating," Wendel said.
Since 2003, CDC has developed tools and techniques that educate people about how changing
the physical design of their neighborhood can lead to healthier communities. The free
online toolkit provides a variety of resources that are easy to read, understand, and use.
They include:
A checklist of questions for individuals, to help them consider and understand healthy
community design elements, such as the building of homes and businesses near each other to
encourage walking and biking to work and school, and shorter car trips.
A customizable PowerPoint presentation on healthy community design that explains to
individuals how the physical makeup of their neighborhood affects their health. The
presentation also explains how people can use the checklist during land use discussions
with local officials, planners, real estate agents, and health professionals. Subjects
include healthier and more affordable food choices, to open spaces and parks that
encourage people to get outside and be more active.
A guide to CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network and other online resources
to find health data on a community. The data will help identify the most urgent health
issues in a community, such as rates of asthma, heart disease, cancer, alcohol consumption
and access to healthcare.
A resource guide listing other audit tools, websites, checklists and pamphlets that can
help residents, planners, public health and local officials create vibrant healthy
neighborhoods.
"The scientific evidence is clear—physical characteristics of a community can affect
an individual’s physical and mental health," said Robin Ikeda, M.D.,M.P.H., deputy
director of CDC’s Office of Noncommunicable Diseases, Injury and Environmental Health.
"The Healthy Community Design Checklist Toolkit is the result of research that has
progressed into a series of action steps. It gives individuals the power to make sure that
physical changes in their community will enhance their health and the livability of their
neighborhoods."
CDC developed the toolkit in partnership with the American Planning Association’s (APA)
Planning and Community Health Research Center to ensure that the kit would be a resource
for everyone who wants to learn how planning can support better health.
Planning and public health have historically worked together to improve sanitation, water,
and food systems. The toolkit is another way to connect these community needs. The
toolkit, along with case studies of communities using the checklist and its principals,
will be presented in April 2014 at the American Planning Association’s National Conference
in Atlanta.
The toolkit advances the National Prevention Strategy’s commitment to healthy & safe
community environments. The National Prevention Strategy, called for by the Affordable
Care Act, envisions a prevention-oriented society where all sectors contribute to the
health of individuals, families, and communities.
To learn more about CDC’s Healthy Community Design Toolkit, Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network or the agency’s efforts to combat obesity please visit:
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/toolkit/