HHS HealthBeat (October 22, 2009)

Active commuting

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

How do you get work? A study says people who bike or walk might be better off.

Penny Gordon-Larsen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that in data on more than 2,300 people:

[Penny Gordon-Larsen speaks] ``There was a association between walking and biking to work and better fitness.’’

Men got greater benefits than women through weight and cholesterol control, but the men also commuted farther than women.

It could be that out-of-shape people were just less likely to bike or walk. But the results fit the pattern of physical activity paying off. Gordon-Larsen says it would be good if more communities made it easier for people to work activity into their lives by, for instance, building more sidewalks and bike lanes.

The study in Archives of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011