Local News
Garden City KU med student produces study on local health
In the wake of a national obesity epidemic, improving public health can be incorporated into a city's development, one medical student and Garden City native said.
Date: 12/30/2009
Posted by Finney County Community Health Coalition on 12/31/2009
By SHAJIA AHMAD
(Laurie Sisk/Telegram Brandon Pruitt speaks to the public about the University of Kansas obesity study of Garden City on Tuesday afternoon at the Garden City Administrative Center.)
Brandon Pruitt, a student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, spoke with city government officials and a few representatives from area health care agencies Tuesday afternoon about his observations gathering data from area households for a statewide research project centered around determinants of health and obesity in rural Kansas, as part of KU researchers' efforts to have discussion with local leaders about how to improve the quality of health in rural communities.
Pruitt, in his second year in medical school and a Garden City Community College graduate and Kansas State University student of kinesiology, reiterated that changing trends in food patterns over the last few decades -- such as consumption of energy dense foods with poor nutritional value and increasingly gargantuan portion sizes -- in addition to technological advances that limit daily physical activity are just some of contributors to the nation's obesity epidemic, where about a third of the county is medically obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Following his research interviewing clients from United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries and his assessments of the relationship of obesity to the community's physical environment -- Garden City was the largest of about 30 rural communities included in the statewide research project -- Pruitt said some of the barriers to walking or biking expressed by the respondents included a lack of biking lanes on public streets and stray dogs in neighborhoods.
The medical student, who agreed with local officials that market-driven behavioral and personal choices that contribute to obesity are difficult to influence in an individual's daily life, offered some ideas about making changes from the top down: encouraging mixed land use -- where offices, business, stores and schools are within walking distance of residences -- and making zoning modifications and sidewalk improvements to encourage physical activity.
"There are adequate places (to work out and walk) in Garden City, but getting people there seems to be a problem," Pruitt said. "Talley Trail is also great, but it's far from a lot of people's homes so they'd have to drive to get there, and the parking situation isn't great, either."
Pruitt pointed out in his assessments of Garden City's neighborhoods that sidewalks in older neighborhoods central to town do not have continuous sidewalks, such as Campus Drive north of Kansas Avenue, and many are in need of repair, observations city officials agreed are accurate.
City Manager Matt Allen said Wednesday that the city historically has taken a "piecemeal" rather than a "strategic" approach to the city's sidewalk situation in residential areas. Part of the problem, Allen said, is that sidewalk maintenance on private property is the responsibility of the homeowner -- though the city currently has a rebate program through the Planning and Community Development Department for curb repair and maintenance costs -- while sidewalk ramps for ADA-accessibility at intersections are the responsibility of the city.
In addition, in a city that is starving for new economic and residential development -- only about 20 new building permits are issued each year -- city planning that encourages mixed land use for its residents isn't always as easy or inexpensive to do as in faster-growing communities, the city manager said.
"What (the city commission) struggles with is finding solutions to these problems and how to apply them," Allen said, reiterating his belief that much of the responsibility relies on people's individual choices, making it difficult for local officials to dictate effective policies that encourage healthy living. "Of course, we can't undo cul-de-sacs in subdivisions we've already built, but we can take other things into account as we move forward."
Allen added that the city's next comprehensive plan, to be published early next year, will place emphases on bicycle and pedestrian traffic development along public roads.
The city has submitted a Transportation Enhancement grant application to the Kansas Department of Transportation to complete a 10-foot shared pedestrian and biking path along the north side of Kansas Highway 156 from Campus Drive to Leslie Road across from Walmart, 3101 E. Kansas Ave..
City officials may know by next summer if the grant will be awarded by the state agency for the $870,000 project.