Comprehensive Planning for Healthy Eating and Active Living: A Systematic Assessment from Wisconsin
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Comprehensive plans can promote healthy eating and active living (HEAL). Using a validated scorecard, we assessed HEAL-promoting components in 116 Wisconsin comprehensive plans. Few plans explicitly address healthy food access or public health. Higher HEAL scores are positively associated with population size, recent plan adoption, a consultant plan author, Democratic voting, and whether “housing and transit” is a designated local health priority. Our findings show that, in Wisconsin, municipal comprehensive plans promote HEAL in a limited and aspirational way, often without actionable policies. Strategies to improve HEAL-oriented planning practice include partnering with public health departments and additional training for planners.
Authors: Lisa M. Charron, Hilary R. Joyner, James A. LaGro, Nicole Lehr, Daniel E. Villegas, Thor Jeppson, Sebastian Gomez Parra, Ronald Gangnon, Sara M. Lindberg
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4414269509