Comprehensive Planning for Healthy Eating and Active Living: A Systematic Assessment from Wisconsin

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.