Living near trails may reduce heart disease risk, study finds

Saving money and the environment are two good reasons to have accessible walking and cycling paths, but now there's proof that just living near a trail can reduce the risk of heart disease.

New research from the University of Manitoba shows Winnipeggers who live near paths where they can walk, run or cycle are healthier for it.

"When we built these trails we didn't force people to cycle on them we just asked them if they would use it, and when they did we saw these great health benefits," said Jon McGavock, an investigator with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

McGavock, a professor of pediatrics, led a study focused on four multi-use trails built about 10 years ago in Winnipeg. The recently published article found living close to a trail leads to an eight per cent reduction in risk factors for heart disease.

"In the trail that had the highest amount of cyclists, they saw about a 13 to 15 per cent reduction in heart disease rates," he said.

This shows the heart health benefits are sensitive to how busy the trails were.

"It's the busy trails, it's the connected ones, it's the ones that are performing a certain function within the network," said Anders Swanson, executive director of the Winnipeg Trails Association.

The Winnipeg Trails Association partnered on the project. Swanson hopes this scientific evidence will help cities map out future active transportation routes that we know people will use.

"If you build it, will they come – and they do," he said. "I think that really should be everything that a traffic engineer really needs to hear."

This study was supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, with the City of Winnipeg as a partner.