Examining Healthy Community Design Characteristics and Its Influence on Physical Health

Current trends in obesity rates associated with the community layout constitutes research towards understanding the interaction between the two in order to improve the public\u27s physical health. Successes in healthy community planning studies for the public can be harnessed and implemented within the microcosm of military bases to yield similar results. Four factors were recognized through an in-depth academic literature review that showed positive influence on physical health and physical activity. They are access to green space, highly connected pedestrian and bicycle networks, access to public transportation, and integrated mixed land use. The four healthy planning strategies formed the necessary background to analyze the Healthy Base Initiative survey. A priori data from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center was examined for reliability, validity, and consistency. The results uncovered the fact that the exploratory nature of the Healthy Base Initiative survey was too wide-ranged in its questions leading to an inconclusive and undesirable outcome. The new DoD Healthy Activity Public Planning Investigative survey addresses the issues of the Healthy Base Initiative survey by reducing the most applicable healthy planning factors to the four strategies highlighted from the literature review. The novel survey combines questions pertaining to existing healthy base infrastructure with a validated World Health Organization Global Physical Activity Questionnaire to examine the causal relationship between physical health and environment. Altogether, the significance of this research presents four concise healthy planning strategies for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center and the Department of Defense, as well as a recommendation for a way forward on understanding how to improve base occupant\u27s physical health through healthy community planning