What's the best way for kids to meet physical activity guidelines? Running? Jumping? Sports? Active video games? A new list, the Youth Compendium of Physical Activities, is now out in Spanish and English to shed light on 196 youth physical activities and the estimated energy expenditure for each. This exploration of youth activity—from running to soccer to cycling to Wii Sports—offers parents, teachers, coaches, healthcare workers, and researchers better insight into which physical activities contribute to a healthier lifestyle, thanks to the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR). "It can be used by a wide variety of people—from researchers and health care professionals to teachers, coaches, and fitness professionals—and in a variety of ...
Medical and public health experts agree that being active outside is crucial to maintaining physical and mental health. However, overcrowding in parks, sidewalks, and on trails can become a serious issue during COVID-19. Pedestrian safety is also a serious issue because although vehicle travel is down, crashes and fatalities are up. Cities across the world are responding by temporarily reallocating street space for people walking, biking, rolling, and skating to practice physical distancing from others. Everyone deserves safe places to be physically active and safe routes to get to essential destinations. Let’s use #SaludTues on May 26, 2020, to tweet about the importance of equitably sharing streets during a crisis problem. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “How to ...
Preparing for and overcoming any disaster, such as the current coronavirus pandemic, requires healthy and resilient communities. However, after age, obesity is the biggest risk factor for being hospitalized with COVID-19. And the U.S. has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, with drastic disparities among racial/ethnic groups, including the highest rates among Latinos. To beat COVID-19, we need healthier communities that prevent obesity and leaders who prioritize equitable access to healthy food, housing, and safe spaces to walk and bike instead of space for cars. “We in the U.S. have not always identified obesity as a disease, and some people think it’s a lifestyle choice. But it’s not,” said Dr. Matthew Hutter, director of the Weight Center at Massachusetts ...
Join our national webinar to find out how our Salud America! Health Equity Report Card can help you visualize and explore place-based health inequities in your county, and build a case toward solutions during these difficult coronavirus times. The webinar, “How to Use Place-Based Data to Promote Health Equity During COVID-19 Pandemic,” is set for 2 p.m. ET Thursday, May 7, 2020. Webinar speakers will explore: How inequities in housing, transportation, poverty, healthcare, and access to healthy food and safe places to be active, contribute to disparities in infectious and chronic disease.
How you can use the local data, interactive maps, and comparative gauges in the Salud America! Health Equity Report Card to identify health inequity issues in your county.
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With schools and retail stores closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, more people are going outside to walk and bike in communities across the country. Philadelphia and New York are closing some streets to cars and open them to people walking and biking. This gives people room to practice six-foot social distancing rules as they pick up groceries, get physical activity, and grab some fresh air amid the coronavirus lockdown. But some cities and states are closing parks amid virus fears. This worsens existing inequities in access to green and open spaces for Latinos and other disadvantaged communities. Equitable access to green and open spaces is more important than ever.
Outdoor Recreation is Surging during Coronavirus
Social media is abuzz about the spike in people outside ...
Elva Yañez—with her neighbors and allies—waged a campaign that has lasted over 15 years to preserve one of the last unprotected open green spaces in her Northeast Los Angeles community of El Sereno. Before working on healthy equitable land use issues, she worked in tobacco control. When she recognized similarities in the way tobacco companies and land developers fought to protect private interests from government regulation, she began using tobacco control tactics to fight for environmental justice. With the help of others, she led an effort to stop one particularly harmful residential development in her community that had serious public health and safety consequences. Throughout the campaign she knew she wanted to go upstream and address the systemic conditions that allowed ...
Physical activity, like walking, is one of the best ways a person can improve their health and quality of life, while cutting risk of at least 20 diseases and conditions. Unfortunately, too few communities are designed for walking and physical activity. Intentionally creating communities with safe routes to everyday destinations is a key strategy to increase physical activity─not only to reduce health disparities, healthcare costs, and premature death, but also to increase equitable access to opportunity to build health and wealth. That’s why the CDC launched Active People, Healthy NationSM in January 2020. The initiative will help community leaders use proven strategies to make physical activity safe and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities. It specifically ...
James Rojas loved how his childhood home brought family and neighbors together. The L.A. home had a big side yard facing the street where families celebrated birthdays and holidays. Uncles played poker. Aunts tended a garden. Children roamed freely. Mexican elders—with their sternness and house dresses—socialized with their American-born descendants—with their Beatles albums and mini-skirts. Rojas was shocked to find some would look down on this neighborhood. “Why do so many Latinos love their neighborhood so much if they are bad?” he wondered. Rojas, in grad school, learned that neighborhood planners focused far more on automobiles in their designs than they did on the human experience or Latino cultural influences. He wanted to change that. Rojas has spent ...
Local planners have the power to help create healthy, fair communities. Unfortunately, common planning practices have contributed to the high percentage of poor people and people of color who live in unhealthy places, widening disparities in health and wealth. That's why our friends at ChangeLab Solutions created Long Range-Planning for Health, Equity & Prosperity: A Primer for Local Governments. This can help planners prioritize health and equity in their work. "By integrating health and equity considerations into planning practices, planners have the power to revise past planning decisions and create healthy, equitable, and prosperous communities," ChangeLab reports.
Place Matters for Health Equity
Where you live matters for your health. Inequitable city planning, ...
