Friday 10 February 2012

Keep up

There's a raft of evaluations and monitoring reports for active travel programmes, including the I Bike project in Scotland, the Living Streets community walking programme and the Travel Actively projects. A study of urban, multi-ethnic school children considers the association of active travel to school with general physical activity levels. Do "use the stairs" notices work, asks a team from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This study examined the effectiveness of a prompt ("burn calories, not electricity") across a range of different sized buildings and found an immediate increase in stair climbing, which was also maintained after 9 months. An analysis of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study adds a little more to the sum of knowledge about the dynamic relationship between fitness, overweight and cardiovascular health. Exercise on prescription schemes are examined in a systematic review and meta-analysis and are found to be of uncertain value in increasing physical activity, fitness and other health outcomes. A cost effectiveness study also suggested that exercise referral schemes only delivered a "modest increase in lifetime costs and benefits."

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