Tracking healthy habits

IF YOU live in Mont Albert or Surrey Hills, chances are you are among the fittest folk in Whitehorse.

Data from the Australian Health Policy Collaboration’s Health Tracker website – which maps key health statistics around the country by postcode – shows residents in Mont Albert and Surrey Hills regularly exercise more than those living elsewhere.

The Health Tracker looks at the percentage of adults within each suburb who exercise at or above the base level of fitness each week (the equivalent of more than three hours of walking each week).

The data shows 40 per cent of adults in Mont Albert and Surrey Hills were meeting the base level each week, while in Blackburn, Blackburn North, Blackburn South, Mitcham, Vermont and Vermont South 38 per cent of adults exercised regularly.

In Box Hill, Box Hill North, Mont Albert North and Box Hill South it was 37 per cent, while 34.5 per cent of people in Burwood and Burwood East achieved the base fitness level.

Nunawading (35 per cent) and Forest Hill (34 per cent) brought up the rear.

However, the data shows Forest Hill and Nunawading are almost on par with the Victorian average of 35 per cent of adults exercising, while the Australian average for physical activity is 34 per cent.

The Whitehorse Active Transport Action Group, which formed in March, aims to improve health and environmental sustainability in the municipality.

Group committee member David Berry said it was “largely up to the individual” to improve their physical health.

But he said there were ways local and state governments could help people by improving connectivity so people think twice about taking a car when they’re going on short trips.