« Self-Service Bikes | Main | Federal Push on Congestion Pricing »

February 08, 2007

Sprawl and Obesity in the Media

With the obesity epidemic finally getting the kind fo press attention it deserves, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at just how much people are talking about the effects of the built environment on our health.

The cover story in the current issue of Science News gives a nice overview of the current research on the topic. Essentially, as summarized by Prof. Crane of Urban Planning Research, it does seem that people living in suburbs are fatter, but it's very hard to prove that this is definitevely caused by their living environment. The correlation may be the result of self-selection, for instance.

As interesting as the research is, I wonder if focusing the conversation solely on the research best serves the interests of the public at large. I'm reminded of the conversation around the "scientific case" for Global Warming during the 90's. Our health is also a complex phenomenon influenced by a great number of factors over time. Obviously, that makes finding conclusive, definitive scientific proof difficult. But does that really matter? Isn't there a case to be made that in certain situations the cost of uncertainty is greatly surpassed by the benefits of actually doing something? Everything else seems like stalling.

No one needs infrared satellite images to understand the influence of our environment on our health. I'd add that focusing solely on weight gain and obesity rates is a poor way for us to gauge that relationship. A scientist needs clearly defined parameters, but for the rest of us it is useful to deal with more subtle concepts like quality of life and active living styles.

Two people may have the same weight-height index, say, but have drastically different living styles. One commutes to and from the suburbs to then spend an hour a day in the gym, whereas the other walks home everyday. These are not identically "healthy" lifestyles, even if these two individuals happen to be as healthy. To name just one factor that's often over-looked , there is a profound class-bias to the first case, as not everyone can afford a gym membership.

I do want to add that I don't mean to suggest that we shouldn't be doing this kind of research, only that we have to be able to see the forest for the trees.

Posted by jessehudson at February 8, 2007 12:30 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://urbancommons.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/125

Comments

Post a comment