The Shape of the Built Environment Shapes Children’s Health

Abstract

Children must grow in environments that are safe, healthful, and diverse. The built environment includes buildings, roads, parks, vehicles, and recreational spaces that are created or modified by people. All of these spaces affect health. A community’s built environment shapes opportunities for physical activity. The built environment can support or impede recreational and social interaction. It can enable physical fitness, or it can impel the rising rates of childhood and adult obesity and diabetes. Innovative changes in the built environment, such as LEED-certified buildings, should offer sustainable and healthful solutions. Traditional urban and suburban plans are often targeted more at meeting the needs of vehicles and rarely focus on children’s needs, including for incidental and purposeful physical activity, healthful play, and access to schools.