In 2017, the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) formed a Physical Activity workgroup to foster cross-NCCOR planning and engagement among all partners related to physical activity. The workgroup was formed as a result of a September 2016 NCCOR meeting focused on identifying new physical activity projects.
Evidence exists for the health impact of walkable communities, but evidence for additional benefits that may create buy-in from other sectors is lacking. Step it Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities describes the need for developing measures and tools to quantify additional benefits of walkability to evaluate and examine the effectiveness of interventions. NCCOR formed the Additional Benefits of Walkability subgroup to address this need. This project aims to quantify the additional benefits of social cohesion and injury prevention associated with increased walkability.
In February 2018, NCCOR began conducting a literature review to quantify social cohesion and injury prevention benefits associated with increased walkability. The literature review titled, Systematic Review on Quantifying Pedestrian Injury When Evaluating Changes to the Built Environment was completed in 2019, and published in Preventive Medicine Reports in 2022.