{"id":804295,"date":"2026-07-15T21:29:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804295\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:29:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:29:45","slug":"research-links-neighbourhood-design-with-long-term-health-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804295\/","title":{"rendered":"Research links neighbourhood design with long-term health | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Choosing your ideal neighbourhood is personal, and may be based on affordability, commute time, quality of schools and perhaps proximity to friends and family. But did you know that your neighbourhood choice impacts your health?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gavin McCormack, PhD, a professor and researcher whose work is at the intersection of design, public health, physical activity and chronic disease prevention, says the built environment \u2013 how your neighbourhood and city is designed \u2013 can have a large impact on your susceptibility to chronic diseases like heart disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people relocate to a new neighbourhood they don\u2019t often think \u2018if I am going to live in this neighbourhood for 10 or 20 years, what is the cumulative effect it will have on my health?,\u2019\u201d says McCormack, who leads the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.behealthylivinglab.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Built Environment and Healthy Living Lab<\/a> at the Cumming School of Medicine. \u201cBut it matters for your health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McCormack\u2019s team looks at how factors within the built environment, like walkability, connectivity, density, land uses, proximity to and quality of green and natural spaces and pedestrian infrastructure, influence physical activity and sedentary behaviour, risk factors for cardiovascular disease. His goal is to generate scientific evidence to inform the design of inclusive, health-promoting built environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McCormack says in Canada there have been efforts by municipalities to enhance the health-supportiveness of built environments over the past few decades, but there is still a need for improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So how can you choose a neighbourhood that promotes, rather than impedes, cardiovascular health?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn cities like Calgary, where urban design continues to prioritize automobiles, planning and building health supportive infrastructure can be challenging. The design of our cities and neighbourhoods currently, can make healthy behaviours like physical activity, much more difficult to adopt and maintain\u201d says McCormack. \u201cBut there are things individuals can do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McCormack says understanding the health importance of the built environment is critical, as is raising public awareness about this topic.<\/p>\n<p>He encourages residents to get involved early, as both new and established communities are planned, redesigned, and approved by civic leaders. He encourages people to get involved as communities are being designed and approved by civic leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat matters is that residents have more of a voice in what their neighbourhoods look like, while also making sure decisions are guided by evidence about what supports healthier communities,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal is to ensure where you live nudges you towards healthy behaviours, such as spending time outdoors, visiting local parks and natural spaces, cycling and walking to destinations instead of driving, and limiting indoor sedentary time \u2013 so healthy choices are easy choices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gavin McCormack is a professor in the Dept. of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine. He\u2019s a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and the O\u2019Brien Institute for Public Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Choosing your ideal neighbourhood is personal, and may be based on affordability, commute time, quality of schools and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-804295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}