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August 15, 2025NatureOpen Access

Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity

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Authors

TATim AlthoffUniversity of WashingtonBIBoris IvanovicNvidia (United States)­K­Abby C. KingStanford Health Care

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Overview

Natural experiment reveals the connection between walkability and physical activity levels, suggesting urban planning impacts health.

Key Points

  • Increased walkability significantly raises physical activity levels after relocation, showing a clear benefit for health.
  • Moving from a less walkable city to a more walkable one increases daily walking by an average of 1,100 steps.
  • Data analyzed comes from a large cohort of 2,112,288 smartphone users across 1,609 cities in the US.
  • Findings highlight the importance of urban design in promoting health-enhancing physical activity for diverse populations.

Cite This Study

Althoff et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/68a365600a429f797332b5b9https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09321-3
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Countrywide natural experiment reveals impact of built environment on physical activity2024
  2. 2Built for walking: Cross-city and cross-scale built environment associations with walking from massive, fine-grained mobile trajectory data2026
  3. 3Analyzing the link between built environment and physical activity: a spatial study in suburban area2024 · 9 citations
  4. 4Impacts of built environment changes on physical activity in Canada: a systematic review of natural experiments2026
  5. 5Association between Built Environment Policy and Good Health Status2024 · 2 citations