New Home, New Prognosis? Reduced Hypertension Risk after Moving to a High-Walkability Neighborhood

The impact of the built environment on health is still a fairly new research field, and many investigations have relied on the use of cross-sectional data, a research model that carries the risk of incorrectly suggesting reverse causation. A study in this issue of EHP, however, uses a more robust longitudinal design and reports that residents of Ontario, Canada, who moved from a low-walkability neighborhood to a high-walkability neighborhood had a 54% lower likelihood of developing hypertension than those who moved from one low-walkability neighborhood to another.