Walking with a purpose – especially walking to get to work – makes people walk faster and consider themselves to be healthier, a new study has found.
The study, published online earlier this month in the Journal of Transport and Health, found that walking for different reasons yielded different levels of self-rated health. People who walked primarily to places like work and the grocery store from their homes, for example, reported better health than people who walked mostly for leisure.
“We found that walking for utilitarian purposes significantly improves your health, and that those types of walking trips are easier to bring into your daily routine,” said Gulsah Akar, an associate professor of city and regional planning in The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture.
“So, basically, both as city planners and as people, we should try to take the advantage of this as much as possible.”
Akar is a co-lead for the Sustainability Institute’s smart and resilient communities research program area.
Read more about why walking to work may be better for you than a casual stroll