The International Physical Activity
and Environment Network

We will send email alerts when IPEN papers are published, and we will send infrequent news about either IPEN-related or general information about built environments, physical activity, and obesity.

The measures and methods we recommend are based on tested materials and techniques. The main aim of our network is to be able to compare data from multiple sites. To do this there must be some common core of measures and methods.

By the end of the 1990s there was much evidence to indicate that trying to change individual’s physical activity behavior at a population level was only moderately successful. Environmental studies show more potential for population change, not only because they can reach many people but because the improvements can last a long time. There is now substantial research demonstrating a relationship between the environment and physical activity behavior, supported by many reviews.

Based on the evidence, environment and policy interventions to promote physical activity are now recommended in the World Health Organization’s Global Action Plan for Physical Activity (GAPPA) as well as many country-specific recommendations (e.g., US Guide to Community Preventive Services). Several conceptual frameworks, including ecological models of health behaviours and active living, also support the role of the environment in behavior change.