When physical activity meets the physical environment: precision health insights from the intersection.
10.1186/s12199-021-00990-w
- Author:
Luisa V GILES
1
;
Michael S KOEHLE
2
;
Brian E SAELENS
3
;
Hind SBIHI
4
;
Chris CARLSTEN
5
Author Information
1. School of Kinesiology, University of the Fraser Valley, 45190 Caen Ave, Chilliwack, British Columbia, V2R 0N3, Canada. luisa.giles@ufv.ca.
2. School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, 210-6081 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, and Seattle Children's Research Institute, 2001 Eighth Ave, Suite 400, Seattle, Washington, 98121, USA.
4. British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, 655 West 12th Ave, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5Z 4R4, Canada.
5. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 2775 Laurel Street, 10th Floor, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5Z 1M9, Canada.
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
Air pollution;
Green space;
Heat;
Physical activity;
Precision health;
Walkability
- MeSH:
Air Pollution;
Built Environment;
Environment;
Exercise/psychology*;
Hot Temperature;
Humans;
Precision Medicine/psychology*;
Residence Characteristics
- From:Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine
2021;26(1):68-68
- CountryJapan
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:The physical environment can facilitate or hinder physical activity. A challenge in promoting physical activity is ensuring that the physical environment is supportive and that these supports are appropriately tailored to the individual or group in question. Ideally, aspects of the environment that impact physical activity would be enhanced, but environmental changes take time, and identifying ways to provide more precision to physical activity recommendations might be helpful for specific individuals or groups. Therefore, moving beyond a "one size fits all" to a precision-based approach is critical.
MAIN BODY:To this end, we considered 4 critical aspects of the physical environment that influence physical activity (walkability, green space, traffic-related air pollution, and heat) and how these aspects could enhance our ability to precisely guide physical activity. Strategies to increase physical activity could include optimizing design of the built environment or mitigating of some of the environmental impediments to activity through personalized or population-wide interventions.
CONCLUSIONS:Although at present non-personalized approaches may be more widespread than those tailored to one person's physical environment, targeting intrinsic personal elements (e.g., medical conditions, sex, age, socioeconomic status) has interesting potential to enhance the likelihood and ability of individuals to participate in physical activity.
