Promoting Better Health for Young People Through Physical Activity ...

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Promoting Better Health for Young Peopleencouraged to take formal educational courses offered by local recreationdepartments or sports-specific organizations. Better-trained coaches willenhance enjoyment of the team sports experience for young people,increase retention rates among participants, and help to reduce sportsrelatedinjuries.Community Structural EnvironmentA community structural environment that supports physical activity is onewith• An abundance of accessible, well-lit, and safe sidewalks, bicycle paths,trails, and crosswalks to facilitate walking and bicycling.• Sports and recreation facilities that are close to the homes of mostresidents, well-maintained, and safe.• Programs in place to motivate community members to walk, bicycle,and use the sports and recreation facilities.Strategy 8: Enable communities to develop and promote the use ofsafe, well-maintained, and close-to-home sidewalks, crosswalks, bicyclepaths, trails, parks, recreation facilities, and community designs featuringmixed-use development and a connected grid of streets.Research has found that moderate physical activity, such as walking andbicycling, offers substantial health benefits. 6 Walking is, in many ways, anideal form of physical activity. It’s easy to do, requires no special skills orequipment, can be done by the vast majority of the population with littlerisk of injury, and is functional: It gets us places. Unfortunately, youngpeople today do not have the opportunities for walking that previous generationshad. Since the late 1940s, community and transportation developmentpractices have focused on increasing the efficiency of automobile use.Sidewalks, bicycle paths, and crosswalks are practically nonexistent in manycommunities developed since the 1960s.Asmall increase in thepercentage of tripsthat are walked ratherthan driven could resultin significant publichealth benefits.Nearly 25% of the trips made from home in our nation cover a distanceless than one mile, but 75% of those trips are made by automobile. 15 Asmall increase in the percentage of trips that are walked rather than drivencould result in significant public health benefits. Research has found thatpeople walk more when they live in communities that have greater housingand population density and more street connectivity (i.e., streets lead toother streets and stores, rather than just ending in cul-de-sacs). 40 Researchalso shows that people are more active in neighborhoods that are perceivedas safe and that have recreational facilities nearby. 41Communities need funding, guidelines, model programs, and ongoingtechnical assistance to implement these strategies. Departments of transportation,city planning, parks and recreation, law enforcement, public26
A Report to the Presidenthealth, and education all should collaborate in these efforts. Department ofHealth and Human Services agencies can support studies that examine theeffects of community infrastructure changes on physical activity, physicalfitness, environmental quality, and social connectedness. Such studies willprovide valuable information that can be used to document the importanceof having a community infrastructure that supports physical activity.One existing mechanism for promoting walking, bicycling, and accessiblerecreation facilities is the CDC’s Active Community Environmentsinitiative (Appendix 23). This initiative has focused on helpingcommunities to promote walking to school (Appendix 24) and to developclose-to-home parks and recreational facilities.One of the major barriers to youth participation in physical activity is alack of access to sports and recreation facilities. 42 Increased access to schoolfacilities would, therefore, help facilitate increases in physical activityamong young people. School districts should work with youth sports andrecreation programs to take maximum advantage of school facilities for thebenefit of children, adolescents, and the community as a whole.Media CampaignsYoung people today belong to a multimedia generation. The average childspends more than 4 hours a day using electronic media. 18 Although thisstaggering amount of media use poses certain problems, it also creates anopportunity: Young people are a willing audience that can be reachedthrough a variety of media. Communicating to young people through anongoing, well-designed multimedia campaign can play an important role inincreasing their motivation to be physically active.Strategy 9: Implement an ongoing media campaign to promote physicaleducation as an important component of a quality education and longtermhealth.This campaign must take advantage of all that communication and marketingexperts have learned about how to develop effective mass media messages.Testing messages for appeal and appropriateness with different groupsis essential, as is involving young people in all aspects of campaign planningand implementation. Special efforts should be made to reach out to thosepopulation segments in greatest need, including girls and members ofracial/ethnic minority groups. Culturally and linguistically appropriatemessages should be designed for these groups and delivered throughtargeted communication channels. Communication to parents, educators,and health care professionals also should be a central part of this campaign.While the campaign should take advantage of traditional media (e.g.,television and radio ads), it should also target the new media (e.g., Internet-27
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