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It Shouldn't Hurt: Creating Places for Injury-Free Active Living
The Challenge: Being active is essential to the health and well-being of children, but physical activity can also lead to injuries. Even minor injuries have negative effects, including reducing levels of health-benefiting physical activity.
Make an impact: Effective injury prevention programs must accompany efforts to increase physical activity among youth, so that the health benefits from active living are not outweighed by a significant increase in injuries.
What the findings are about: This study reviews and summarizes scientific literature related to physical activity and injury prevention. It also identifies effective place-based policies and environmental design principles that can prevent injuries while promoting active lifestyles for children.
- Since injury prevention and active living share a focus on making physical places appealing and safe for children to be active, place-focused interventions (including policy initiatives) can be very effective.
- Place-focused interventions that promote both activity and safety include:
- Requiring that playgrounds meet safety standards for the height of equipment and soft surfaces;
- Implementing traffic calming measures and urban planning strategies that separate cars from pedestrians and bicyclists to promote safe active commuting; and
- Passing and enforcing legislation requiring use of bicycle helmets and other protective equipment.
- Efforts to increase physical activity among youth can and should occur in partnership with injury prevention professionals. By working together to promote active lifestyles for youth, such collaborations promote optimal child health and low risk for injury.
Read the full article: Toward environments and policies that promote injury-free active living – it wouldn’t hurt
- DOWNLOAD "It Shouldn't Hurt: Creating Places for Injury-Free Active Living" PDF (0.03 MB) Article Summary
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