The world may be “catching” obesity from America, according to one of the world’s leading antiobesity campaigners.

Mark Fenton, from Tufts University, Boston and a keynote speaker at the Be Active 09 conference in Brisbane this week says that it is possible that the US is a source of “disease vectors” that are hastening a worldwide epidemic of obesity.

“Currently in the US, 60 per cent of the adult population is overweight with one-third obese and the problem is spreading worldwide, with Australia and the UK two countries closely following the US trend,” said Mr Fenton.

“The simplistic approach adopted by many governments is to merely blame personal behaviours such as sloth, poor nutritional habits, ignorance and indifference for this epidemic.

“However, increasing evidence shows that environmental factors significantly influence population level behaviour.

“Recent studies suggest that living in neighbourhoods with less diverse destinations, those with longer blocks and few connections, having longer driving commute times and the lack of simple facilities such as sidewalks, multi-use trails and park space all increase the risk of insufficient physical activity and increased overweight.

“These are all attributes of contemporary American development patterns that are being exported to the rest of the world.

“Sadly, these are ideally aligned with increasing obesity risk,” said Mr Fenton.

So how do we promote physical activity at the community level? Fenton suggests four broad aspects of the built environment which can create settings for more active living and a better opportunity for preventing obesity:

• A variety of different types of destination in close proximity. The distance between opportunities to live, work, shop, play and learn are short enough to allow more walking and bicycling.
• A well connected network of facilities for physically active travel, such as sidewalks, bike lanes and multi-use trails.
• Well designed destinations that are functional for active travelers. This ranges from sitting buildings near the street rather than behind the acres of parking to simply including plentiful bicycle parking.
• Designs and traffic calming features that create safe and accessible settings for active travelers of all ages, abilities, incomes and backgrounds.

“The combination of these four attributes along with related promotion and educational elements allows not just for exercise or recreational physical activity, but also more functional physical activity through walking, bicycling and transit tips and the best chance of halting the American obesity virus,” said Mr Fenton.

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