NEWS

School of Public Health houses $16.5-million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ‘active living’ program

CHAPEL HILL -- Recent national statistics suggest that only 26 percent of American adults are physically active and 61 percent are overweight. Resulting debate has focused on why this may be happening, and public health researchers are considering the impact that community design and options for transportation may have on routine physical activity.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has chosen the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health to lead a multi-year, $16.5-million initiative to address these issues. Called Active Living by Design, this national program will establish innovative approaches to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies that can become models for success nationwide.

The program was launched today (Sept. 30) in Southern Village, a Chapel Hill community that has received national recognition for its attention to new urbanist design principles.

"This is a prime opportunity to promote healthy behaviors that have been largely removed from our daily routines. Our initiative will concentrate on promoting physical activity by making neighborhoods more activity-friendly. This approach could enable millions of sedentary Americans to integrate physical activity into their lives and as a result address other dilemmas faced by communities, such as traffic congestion, air pollution, crime and safety," said Rich Killingsworth, Active Living by Design’s director and a former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health scientist.

Active Living by Design will award grants of up to $200,000 over five years to 25 qualifying community-oriented partnerships that will develop and implement strategies that increase opportunities for and remove barriers to routine physical activity, especially among low-income Americans who are most likely to be inactive and are most vulnerable to poor health outcomes.

The Active Living by Design national program office will post a call for proposals on its Web site – www.activelivingbydesign.org – in November, with grantees selected by fall 2003.

"Strategies to promote physical activity through the built environment offer great promise and are a more meaningful approach than just advocating for traditional activities such as sports, aerobics or weightlifting. Structured activities only resonate with a small percentage of the population," said Dr. Bill Roper, dean of UNC’s School of Public Health. "By designing activity-friendly environments it becomes easier to practice ‘active living.’"

Active living is a way of life that integrates physical activity into daily routines. The goal of active living is to achieve at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity on most days of the week, as recommended by the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health.

"Active Living by Design is an important part of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s efforts to promote healthy communities and lifestyles," said Dr. J. Michael McGinnis, senior vice president and director of RWJF’s health group. "We chose UNC to house the national program office because of the School of Public Health’s vast experience in working with communities on these important issues. The school also brings to the table strengths in related academic disciplines, such as city planning, transportation and architecture."

Many Americans are not physically active because their community environment does not support that activity, Killingsworth said.

"It is often difficult, if not impossible, to walk or bike to any destination of importance, and few places actually encourage people to be active. Opportunities to be active have been engineered out of daily routines in favor of convenience. Active living embraces the ideal of having choices to engage the built and natural environment with our feet or pedals."

Add these built environment issues to the proliferation of television viewing, video game playing and Internet usage and the result is an increasing number of Americans choosing a lifestyle that has essentially no opportunity for any physical activity. The price for many, said Roper, has been an epidemic of obesity and chronic diabetes in families, one generation to the next.

"Our vision for this program is to leave a legacy that impacts all segments of society by creating places that can improve the quality of life for Americans regardless of ability, age, race or income, and at the same time reducing the public health burden of physical inactivity," Killingsworth said.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse – tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

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Active Living by Design contact: Mark Dessauer, (919) 843-3077 or mark_dessauer@unc.edu

School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation contact: Maureen Cozine, (609) 627-5937 or mcozine@rwjf.org