health related to urban sprawl?

Urban sprawl seems to be a quite important topic in urban development. The generalized impression seems to be that it is more a problem. I quite agree with that. Urban sprawl results in little population densities. As a result mass transportation systems are inefficient. Wherever you locate bus / subway stations, people will just not make use of them because the average length to your place is still too far. Thus in horizontally developed urban areas you'll find increased use of private motorized transportation means, mostly in the form of automobiles, with the associated environmental and noise problems. As usual you can read a lot more on this topic in wikipedia.

So recently I came across an article that analyzes this problem from a different point of view. The argument is that urban sprawl may be linked with worse heath. It seems to me that there are still many open points in the article that need more discussion. However I thought the idea interesting. The main point seems to be that cities not consisting of mixed business/residential areas discourage human exercise since you never get anywhere by walking or riding a bike. The study is not too conclusive but an interesting read nevertheless.