Walkable neighbourhoods tied to lower diabetes risk (Canada)

People living in communities that lend themselves to walking had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those living in the least walkable neighbourhoods in a large new study from Canada. "If you have fewer opportunities for physical activity in your daily life, then you may gain more weight...and you're also more likely to develop diabetes," said Dr. Gillian Booth, the lead author and a researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Booth said earlier studies have looked at potential links between diabetes and the pedestrian-friendliness of neighbourhoods, and have found similar connections - but that research took only a snapshot in time, making it difficult to determine which came first, the neighbourhood style or the elevated diabetes risk. With the world's population increasingly concentrated in cities, Booth and her colleagues wanted to further tease apart the relationship between urban environment and health. New immigrants from less developed countries to urban areas like Toronto are at particular risk for falling into a sedentary lifestyle and falling prey to Western lifestyle diseases, Booth's team notes in the journal Diabetes Care