The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Session: Public Health Implications of Community Design and Land Use Choices
4185.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM
Oral
Public Health Implications of Community Design and Land Use Choices
A healthy community protects and improves the quality of life for its citizens, promotes healthy behaviors and minimizes hazards for its residents, and preserves the natural environment. The design of houses, commercial buildings, roads, parks, and other features in the built environment directly influences the health of a community. Increasing evidence suggests that land use and transportation decisions can facilitate or obstruct the creation and maintenance of healthy communities. Sprawling developments deter physical activity and increase automobile dependence that contributes to air pollution, car crashes, and pedestrian injuries. The mental health of individuals and a community’s social capital may be influenced by the design of the built environment. In this session, presenters will discuss the science base on the relation of health and healthy behaviors to land use, transportation and planning.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: (1) understand how physical aspects of the built environment and transportation options encourage or discourage individual choices on physical activity; (2) become aware of how design choices that created the current built environment promote safety or create hazards for road users of all types and how future design choices encouraged by the smart growth movement may help prevent injuries; (3) identify health effects of air pollution and the impact of land use and transportation decisions on air quality; (4) understand how the built environment impacts social capital and mental well-being; (5) describe the opportunities and challenges urban planners and developers face in designing and building communities to have a positive impact on health.
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organizer(s):Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
John Neuberger, MBA, MPH, DrPH
Jason Corburn, PhD
Moderator(s):Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
2:30 PMEnvironmental design and public health: Review and prospect
Neil P. Korostoff, MLA
2:45 PMThrough Design, Empowering Communities to Encourage Healthy Lifestyles
Michael Rios, MARCH, MCP, Kelleann Foster, BLA, MLA
3:00 PMNeighborhood determinants of urban health status
Michelle Sahl, MEd, MBA, MBE
3:15 PMImpact of the built environment on the public's health: A developer's perspective
Stuart Baldwin
3:30 PMDefining the impacts on health of land use, transportation, and community design choices: A draft research agenda
Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
Organized by:Environment
Endorsed by:Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of APHA; Community Health Planning and Policy Development; Public Health Nursing
CE Credits:CME, Environmental Health, Health Education (CHES), Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA