Health Effects on the Built Environment
In this week’s readings, you have learned how policy, systems, and environmental change approaches are promising and essential to addressing health inequities; however, to be optimally effective, such changes also require strategic actions to reduce or eliminate any barriers populations experiencing health disparities face. Strategic actions can also help to avoid any negative unintended consequences of such changes.
“For example, inaccessible or nonexistent sidewalks and bicycle or walking paths contribute to sedentary habits. These habits lead to poor health outcomes such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Today, approximately two thirds of Americans are overweight” (Impact of the Built Environment,” 2011).
To encourage healthy community design, health educators can learn how to collaborate across multiple disciplines such as transportation, urban planning, architecture, and public health law. These interactions aid in the development of guidelines, support pilot projects, and educate current and future planners and public health professionals about designing healthier communities.
For this Discussion, consider the community in which you live.
Post by Day 3 an example of and explain how your built environment affects your health (positively or negatively). Provide recommendations of what could be added or removed from your built environment to enhance or improve your health or the health of the community. Justify the rationale for your recommendations.
Remember to begin interacting with your colleagues in the Discussion no later than Day 5 and continue engaging through Day 7 by responding to one or more colleagues by providing an additional recommendation and/or policy that could enhance or improve your colleague’s built environment.
Support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct.