An Urban Trail Network and Cardiovascular Disease: A Natural Experiment

Associations between the built environment and health behaviours are robust, however (1) it remains unclear if the behaviours they elicit lead to meaningful improvements in health outcomes, at the population level and (2) little experimental evidence exists supporting these associations. The primary objective of this study is to capitalize on an urban natural experiment to determine if changing the built environment to support physical activity will (1) reduce the burden of CVD within a population and (2) if it's a cost-effective population intervention. An interrupted time series analysis will be performed over a period of 19 years to determine if the expansion of an urban trail network is associated with reductions in major advserse cardiovascular events (MACE) and CVD-related risk factors within a large urban centre in Canada.