June 3, 2004 -- Every 30 minutes you spend driving in your car
June 3, 2004 -- Every 30 minutes you spend driving in your car may increase your risk of becoming obese by 3%, according to a new study that links driving time to obesity.
The study also shows that people who live in neighborhoods where shops and businesses are within easy walking distance are 7% less likely to be obese than those who do more driving to get around.
"We found that an average white male living in a compact community with nearby shops and services is expected to weigh 10 pounds less than his counterpart in a low-density, residential-only subdivision," researcher Lawrence Frank, associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada, says in a news release.
Researchers say it is the first study to show a link between land use, weight, and travel behavior based on how people use their neighborhoods.
The results were presented at an obesity conference today and are scheduled for publication in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August.
Obesity Tied to Drive Time
In the study, researchers tracked the body mass index (BMI, a measure of weight in relation to height used to measure obesity) and behavior of more than 10,500 people in the Atlanta area.
Researchers also assessed their neighborhoods in terms of the following:
- Connectivity -- How many of the streets connect with each other and provide direct pathways to nearby destinations.
- Net residential density -- How closely people live to each other, as determined by the Census bureau.
- Land use mix -- How many stores, offices, or institutions are within walking distance, or whether their neighborhoods were purely residential areas.
The study showed that residents of compact, well-connected, and balanced neighborhoods were less likely to be obese than those living in residential-only, cul-de-sac subdivisions. For a resident of an area with nearby shops and businesses, the chance of being obese was 35% lower.
The proportion of obese people living in the least mixed neighborhoods was about 20%, but only about 15% of residents living in a mixed area were obese.
Researchers found that living in a more compact, well-connected community was associated with more walking and less driving; and those who walked more, weighed less.
More than 90% of the participants reported not walking at all on a daily basis. But each additional kilometer a person walked was associated with a 5% reduction in the risk of being obese.
