AAP says built environment impacts children’s health

Car dependency hurts kids

Wendy Natt, May 26, 09.

A recent policy statement and press release by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), appearing in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, recognizes that the design of a child’s built environment is a major factor in whether that child has opportunities for physical activity, and, therefore, is an important children’s health issue.

Approximately one-third of children in America are overweight, an epidemic that is due in part to a lack of physical activity, according to AAP. Their policy statement, “The Built Environment: Designing Communities to Promote Physical Activity in Children,” notes that physical activity as a daily routine is possible for children when their neighborhood streets and sidewalks make it safe and possible to walk or bike to school, and that complete streets coupled with higher-density, walkable urban design offers a number of health and safety benefits for children and adults:

More compact urban landscapes not only offer more opportunities for pedestrians, but ultimately support less car dependence and related air pollution and traffic fatalities. The AAP recommends that children achieve 60 minutes of physical activity. Communities that are designed to promote more active lifestyles can help support this goal.

Dr. Richard Jackson, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair of Environmental Sciences at UCLA School of Public Health, who will speak in Houston on June 18, said about the AAP statement:

It is, to my knowledge, the first time a health organization has made such an authoritative and direct statement about the healthfulness or hazards of the design of communities that children grow up in.

Geoff Anderson, President and CEO of Smart Growth America (SGA), praised AAP’s efforts in an SGA press release:

We can have a direct impact on reducing childhood obesity, lowering the pollution that causes asthma, and improving our children’s quality of life. We can - and the American Academy of Pediatrics says we should - build less car-dependent communities, make existing routes to school safer, and ensure that children and their parents have safe, active transportation options like walking or bicycling.

In their release, SGA encouraged other organizations who share AAP’s stance against car-dependent neighborhood development to issue their own statements of support.

SGA_press_release.pdf

(Photo credit: BikePortland.org)