Food, cars and kilograms
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 6
28 May - 11 June 2007 ] by Janine Sim-Jones
Walk less, weigh more? Study shows lack of exercise and fast food take a toll.
Many mothers of young children live in the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Bayswater but the streets are not full of women pushing prams.
Local mother Melanie Philp likes to walk around local streets with her six-month-old son but she says the most likely place to see a mother with a pram is the local shopping centre.
“Most mums seem to be at the Knox City Shopping Centre. They drive there and then get their pram out of the car,” she says.
Ms Philp says many local people have fallen into the habit of driving to get around the neighourhood.
She says that local features such as the lack of a ‘café set’ and busy arterial roads such as Mountain Highway could also keep people in their cars.
Bayswater was one of 50 neighbourhoods examined for a new report launched at the University of Melbourne last week. The report shows that where people live can influence how much they exercise, what they eat and even how much they weigh.
As part of the Victorian Lifestyle and Neighbourhoods Environment Study (VicLANES) researchers from the University’s School of Population Health studied the food purchasing and exercise patterns of almost 5000 people around Melbourne.
The study, funded by VicHealth, is the biggest of its kind in Australia to examine how local environments impact on health.
Findings indicate residents of lower socio-economic areas weigh more, walk less, buy more fast food and eat less fruit than people in more advantaged areas.
But principal researcher Associate Professor Anne Kavanagh, of the University’s Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society, says these differences cannot just be put down to income.
“It seems that whether you live in a richer or poorer neighbourhood could be a more important factor that your actual individual income,” she says.
“Living in low income areas was still important even after we took into account the fact the individual socio-economic position of the people who lived in the areas. That is, living in low socio-economic areas is harmful for both high income and low income households. This suggests there is something in the physical or other characteristics of low income areas that are preventing people from exercising and making healthy eating choices.”
Over the past three years researchers studied the physical features of local neighbourhoods – measuring the length of walking tracks and cycling paths, counting the number of fast food outlets in each locality and determining the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables.
The study found that compared to residents of high socio-economic areas those from low socio-economic areas were more likely to purchase fast food on a weekly basis and walked less.
Overall, residents had a higher Body Mass Index than those living in wealthier areas. But there are also paradoxes in the results.
In low socio-economic areas residents are less likely to walk even though they have more destinations to walk to and more pedestrian crossings.
They are also less likely to buy fruit, even though they have greater access to shops selling fruit and vegetables at cheaper prices.
“It has largely been assumed in the past that people in low socio-economic areas do not have access to fruit and vegetable and that food is more expensive in disadvantaged areas but our research found that is not true,” says Associate Professor Kavanagh.
“What we have found is that up to a quarter of people in these areas say they cannot carry groceries because of disability and age and that they are more likely to run out of money to buy food – so this may be having an impact on their shopping habits.
“Then there are other characteristics of lower socio-economic areas that tend to be less health promoting such as more fast food outlets, more alcohol outlets and less walking tracks.
“And although in many low socio-economic areas there are destinations to walk to, there is also a perception among residents that the local area is not safe to walk in. Even when there are walking tracks these are perceived as not safe.
“There are also perceptions that the neighbourhood is not as attractive or that there is too much traffic.”
Associate Professor Kavanagh says local councils can do much to promote healthy behaviour among their residents.
In particular, she says improving and lengthening walking paths, increasing the number of pedestrian crossings and reducing the density of fast food outlets could make a difference.
She says the data gathered for VicLANES will be a great resource for local councils who want to improve the health of their communities.
“Our study looks at what it is in local environments that might constrain or promote healthy behaviours,” she says.
“It gives local governments evidence they can draw upon in developing initiatives to help their communities develop healthier lifestyles.”
But while local environments may be contributing to poor health choices, Professor Susan Sawyer, Director of the University’s Centre for Adolescent Health (Pediatrics) says they are only part of an incredibly complex set of factors that are eroding not only the health of individuals but also community cohesion.
“In a time-poor society we seem to make individual choices such as taking out a gym membership or getting a personal trainer rather than joining a football or netball club,’’ she says.
“In the past we often made choices which were in relation to team sport, in which volunteerism and community engagement went with the territory.
“These were activities that took people out and about and built up a sense of community connection which was protective for young people.
“As life gets faster and faster and our discretionary time gets shorter and shorter, the decisions about how and where we spend our time have ramifications not just for us and our children but also for the health of our communities.”
Professor Sawyer says it is unrealistic to expect a return to activities of the past such as walking long distances to school.
However, she says the fears of many parents about allowing their children to walk to school are unfounded and could be inadvertently harming their child’s health.
“Young people become responsible by being given responsibility – the more parents try to protect children by not exposing them to risks, the less opportunities we provide for them to learn by participating in the external world,” she says.
Professor Sawyer’s views are echoed by Dr Carolyn Whitzman (Architecture, Building and Planning) who is leading a University of Melbourne study examining what local government and communities can do to encourage children to become independently mobile.
“If there is one well publicised child abduction in Queensland, it has an impact on how safe people feel in Melbourne – even when it’s a statistically very, very unlikely event,” Dr Whitzman says.
“In Melbourne, only one third of children walk more than five minutes a day, and in Australia, almost one in four children are overweight.
“Yet we don’t seem to let these health risks influence our thinking as much as fear of traffic safety and stranger danger.”
Dr Whitzman is leading a research project that aims to determine what can be done to get more children aged eight to 11 out walking, cycling, and playing by themselves in their local communities.
The project, part of the University’s Australasian Centre for the Governance of Management of Urban Transport, is working with children, their parents and planners in the cities of Bendigo, Brimbank and Port Phillip.
“We are trying to find out what it is that makes parents feel more comfortable and kids feel more confident exploring their neighbourhoods on their own,” she says.
On a broader scale, higher density, mixed use, transit-friendly development promotes a more active lifestyle but Dr Whitzman says little things can also make a difference.
“A ‘walking school bus’ in the City of Port Phillip timed how fast you needed to be to use a pedestrian crossing on St Kilda Rd and found you practically had to be an Olympic runner.
“The council then successfully advocated with VicRoads to increase the crossing time.”
Dr Whitzman concedes that planning alone will not get young people into the streets and parks – but she is confident it is part of the solution. And she also believes much can be done to quickly reverse the trend which has put children in the passenger seats of their parents’ cars.
“It’s a cultural shift that has only taken one generation,” she says. “It is possible to have the culture shift back to a commitment to the health and environmental benefits of walking instead of being ferried around in cars.”
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