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Title:

Creating a National Tool for Walking and Public Health Scenario Planning

Accession Number:

01663333

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

There is mounting evidence linking transportation investments and land development with walking and other physical activity, which has implications for chronic disease prevention. Links between the physical environment and health have traditionally focused on harmful exposures such as air pollution, noise, and traffic injury. Given limited funds and competition for how and where investments are made, there is a need to prioritize and target resources to maximize health benefits that can include chronic disease prevention. The ability to apply this evidence to decision making has been limited by the complexity, inconsistency of research methods, and lack of a direct connection with the planning contexts in which decisions need to be made. Scenario planning tools provide a method to apply evidence with spatial planning decisions at a range of geographic scales. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded Urban Design 4 Health (www.ud4h.com) to build the National Public Health Assessment Module (N-PHAM), a plug-in that adds physical activity and public health analysis capabilities to existing scenario planning software tools. This project utilized built and natural environment data at the block-group level and large population surveys to model the relationships of the environment with several health outcomes. To the authors' knowledge, N-PHAM is the first health assessment tool that can connect to multiple existing scenario planning platforms and that is also broadly and consistently applicable nationally. Such tools can empower communities to choose investments that have the greatest impact on health, quality of life, health care costs, and environmental justice related disparities.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians.

Report/Paper Numbers:

18-06078

Language:

English

Authors:

Schoner, Jessica
Chapman, Jim
Brookes, Allen
MacLeod, Kara E

ORCID 0000-0003-0971-3288

Fox, Eric H
Iroz-Elardo, Nicole
Frank, Lawrence D

Pagination:

24p

Publication Date:

2018

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Society

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-06078

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Jan 8 2018 11:34AM