Do State Comprehensive Planning Statutes Address Physical Activity?: Implications for Rural Communities

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Urban Planning
• Environmental Law

Background:

• Physical activity (PA) is crucial for health, yet U.S. adults, particularly in rural areas, fall short of recommended levels.
• The built environment significantly influences PA opportunities, with local comprehensive plans guiding its development.
• Understanding state statutes is key to integrating PA into community planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze state comprehensive planning statutes for provisions related to physical activity (PA) and rural communities.
• To identify how population size influences mandates for PA within these statutes.
• To assess the current legal landscape supporting PA in community development.

Main Methods:

• Conducted primary legal research across all 50 U.S. state comprehensive planning statutes.
• Identified and evaluated statutes for PA-related content and population-conditional mandates.
• Utilized Fisher's exact tests to analyze associations between state rurality and planning mandates.

Main Results:

• Broader PA-related topics appeared more frequently in statutes than specific PA items.
• When PA was addressed, it was often as a mandated, subsumed element.
• PA-related items were less common in statutes from highly rural states or conditionally mandated based on population size.
• Only two states explicitly mentioned PA in their comprehensive planning statutes.

Conclusions:

• State comprehensive planning statutes offer limited direct support for integrating physical activity (PA).
• Provisions for PA are less likely in statutes for rural areas or smaller jurisdictions.
• Policy enhancements are needed to ensure PA is systematically incorporated into community planning across all regions.