Tuesday, May 21, 2024

2:15 PM - 2:55 PM

Room 212

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Details

Africa is the second most populous continent and is a region of huge inequality, faced with an increasing double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases. Mortality from non-communicable diseases across the continent continued to rise. This is an under-appreciated major challenge, but most of these deaths have the potential to be averted in part through improvement in physical activity. However, Africa is where the least physical activity research has been conducted and where less evidence exists on upstream determinants (i.e., environmental, economic, and policy factors) of physical activity. Built environment and policy interventions are effective strategies for improving health behaviors and controlling the rising morbidities and mortalities from non-communicable diseases. Empirical evidence from my pioneering works suggests using data from other regions to inform interventions in Africa is ill-advised as the social patterns and contextual factors influencing physical activity behavior are different between and within regions. Interventions focusing on making the environments more aesthetically pleasing and hygienic, improving safety from crime and traffic, and locating facilities and destinations within walkable distance of homes could be more relevant as partial solutions to the growing epidemics of physical-inactivity-related non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan African countries. Yet, more research is needed to develop this field in Africa. I will discuss my current thoughts on the scientific findings from my African-built environment studies and explore approaches to scalability and representation.

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Chair

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Speaker