The effects of built environment attributes on physical activity-related health and health care costs outcomes in Australia

Attributes of the built environment can positively influence physical activity of urban populations, which results in health and economic benefits. In this study, we derived scenarios from the literature for the association built environment-physical activity and used a mathematical model to transla...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health & place 2016-11, Vol.42, p.19-29
Main Authors: Zapata-Diomedi, Belen, Herrera, Ana Maria Mantilla, Veerman, J. Lennert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Attributes
Australia
Built environment
Clinical outcomes
Computer Simulation
Cost control
Cost engineering
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Density
Destinations
Economic evaluation
Environment
Environment Design - economics
Environments
Exercise
Health
Health Care Costs - statistics & numerical data
Health care expenditures
Health impact assessment
Health Status
Health technology assessment
Humans
Indication
Land use
Mathematical models
Neighborhoods
New South Wales
Physical activity
Physical fitness
Quality-Adjusted Life Years
Regression Analysis
Residence Characteristics
Savings
Urban environments
Urban Population
Urban populations
Urban transportation
Walking
Walking - statistics & numerical data
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Attributes of the built environment can positively influence physical activity of urban populations, which results in health and economic benefits. In this study, we derived scenarios from the literature for the association built environment-physical activity and used a mathematical model to translate improvements in physical activity to health-adjusted life years and health care costs. We modelled 28 scenarios representing a diverse range of built environment attributes including density, diversity of land use, availability of destinations, distance to transit, design and neighbourhood walkability. Our results indicated potential health gains in 24 of the 28 modelled built environment attributes. Health care cost savings due to prevented physical activity-related diseases ranged between A$1300 to A$105,355 per 100,000 adults per year. On the other hand, additional health care costs of prolonged life years attributable to improvements in physical activity were nearly 50% higher than the estimated health care costs savings. Our results give an indication of the potential health benefits of investing in physical activity-friendly built environments. •Built environments supportive of physical activity can contribute to improved population health.•We estimated evidence-based health and health care costs for changes in attributes of the built environment.•The findings can be used as a reference in health impact assessment and economic evaluations of built environment interventions.
ISSN:1353-8292
1873-2054
DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.08.010