Feed: Slashdot
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Title: Countrywide Natural Experiment Links Built Environment To Physical
Activity

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/13/1...

A countrywide study of smartphone users who relocated between US cities found
that moving to more walkable environments increased daily walking by 1,100
steps on average. Stanford University researchers analyzed 248,266 days of
step data from 5,424 users of the Azumio Argus smartphone app who relocated
7,447 times among 1,609 cities between March 2013 and February 2016.
Participants who moved from cities at the 25th percentile of walkability to
those at the 75th percentile sustained the increased activity levels for at
least three months after relocation. The additional steps consisted
predominantly of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, with large
walkability increases of 49-80 points associated with about one hour per week
more of such activity. The study found that 42.5% of participants met
national physical activity guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous activity after
moving to highly walkable locations, compared to 21.5% before relocation.
Computer simulations based on the data suggest that increasing all US cities
to the walkability level of Chicago or Philadelphia could result in 36
million more Americans meeting aerobic physical activity guidelines.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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