Accounting for the daily locations visited in the study of the built environment correlates of recreational walking (the RECORD Cohort Study)

BackgroundPreliminary evidence suggests that recreational walking has different environmental determinants than utilitarian walking. However, previous studies are limited in their assessment of environmental exposures and recreational walking and in the applied modeling strategies. Accounting for individual sociodemographic profiles and weather over the walking assessment period, the study examined whether numerous street network-based neighborhood characteristics related to the sociodemographic, physical, service, social-interactional, and symbolic environments were associated with overall recreational walking and recreational walking in one’s residential neighborhood and could explain their spatial distribution.MethodsBased on the RECORD Cohort Study (Paris region, France, n = 7105, 2007–2008 data), multilevel-spatial regression analyses were conducted to investigate environmental factors associated with recreational walking (evaluated by questionnaire at baseline). A risk score approach was applied to quantify the overall disparities in recreational walking that were predicted by the environmental determinants.ResultsSixty-nine percent of the participants reported recreational walking over the past 7 days. Their mean reported recreational walking time was 3h31mn. After individual-level adjustment, a higher neighborhood education, a higher density of destinations, green and open spaces of quality, and the absence of exposure to air traffic were associated with higher odds of recreational walking and/or a higher recreational walking time in one’s residential neighborhood. As the overall disparities that were predicted by these environmental factors, the odds of reporting recreational walking and the odds of a higher recreational walking time in one’s neighborhood were, respectively, 1.59 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.56, 1.62] times and 1.81 (95% CI: 1.73, 1.87) times higher in the most vs. the least supportive environments (based on the quartiles).ConclusionsProviding green/open spaces of quality, building communities with services accessible from the residence, and addressing environmental nuisances such as those related to air traffic may foster recreational walking in one’s environment.

Walking is the easiest method of physical activity for older people, and current research has demonstrated that the built environment is differently associated with recreational and transport walking. This study modelled the environmental characteristics of three different building density zones in Guangzhou city at low, medium, and high densities, and examined the differences in walking among older people in the three zones. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to investigate the recreational and transport walking time of older people aged 65 years and above for the past week, for a total of three density zones (N = 597) and was analysed as a dependent variable. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to identify 300, 500, 800, and 1,000 m buffers and to assess differences between recreational and transport walking in terms of the built environment [e.g., land-use mix, street connectivity, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data]. The data were processed and validated using the SPSS software to calculate Pearson's correlation models and stepwise regression models between recreation and transit walking and the built environment. The results found that land use mix and NDVI were positively correlated with transport walking in low-density areas and that transport walking was negatively correlated with roadway mediated centrality (BtE) and Point-of-Interest (PoI) density. Moreover, recreational walking in medium density areas was negatively correlated with self-rated health, road intersection density, and PoI density while positively correlated with educational attainment, population density, land use mix, street connectivity, PoIs density, and NDVI. Transport walking was negatively correlated with land-use mix, number of road crossings while positively correlated with commercial PoI density. Street connectivity, road intersection density, DNVI, and recreational walking in high-density areas showed negative correlations. Moreover, the built environment of older people in Guangzhou differed between recreational and transport walking at different densities. The richness of PoIs has different effects on different types of walking.

Recent studies have started to suggest that, beyond effects of individual socioeconomic profiles, socioeconomic characteristics of residential neighborhoods are independently associated with blood pressure. However, mechanisms involved in these associations remain unknown. To distinguish between different mechanisms, we investigated whether specific risk factors of hypertension (physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, smoking, body mass index, waist circumference, and resting heart rate) intervene as mediators in the associations between individual or neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and systolic blood pressure. We relied on data from the RECORD Cohort Study (Residential Environment and CORonary heart Disease) on 5941 participants recruited in 2007-2008, aged 30 to 79 years, residing in 1824 neighborhoods in the Paris metropolitan area. Systolic blood pressure increased independently and regularly with both decreasing individual education and decreasing residential neighborhood education. Body mass index/waist circumference and resting heart rate mediated an appreciable share of the associations between education and blood pressure and, adding validity to the finding, were the 2 most significant mediators for the effects of both individual education and neighborhood education. We found that 52% (95% CI: 25% to 79%) of the association between neighborhood education and blood pressure was mediated by body mass index/waist circumference and 20% (95% CI: 5% to 36%) by resting heart rate. Future research will have to clarify the exact mechanisms through which body weight and shape and resting heart rate intervene as mediators in the associations between individual/neighborhood education and blood pressure.

BackgroundThe transition from active employment to retirement is a potentially critical period for promoting maintenance or development of recreational physical activity in older age. Park proximity and quality might be important correlates of recreational physical activity in this age group. However, research on park-physical activity relationships among mid-older aged adults is limited and inconclusive. Furthermore, while knowledge of individual moderators of park-physical activity relationships is crucial for tailoring interventions, this knowledge is also limited. We investigated relationships between perceived park proximity, park quality and recreational physical activity among mid-older aged adults. Additionally, we examined the potential moderating effects of gender, education level, retirement status, functional limitations and area of residence on these relationships.MethodsSelf-reported data on demographics, functional limitations, park proximity, park quality, recreational walking and other recreational moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) were collected among 2700 Australian adults (57–67 years) in 2012. Objective information on area of residence was collected. To examine associations of park-related variables with recreational walking and other recreational MVPA, zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression models were used.ResultsPark proximity significantly interacted with retirement status; non-retired participants who reported living near a park were more likely to participate in recreational walking, whereas no relationship was observed in retired participants. Among those who walked for recreation, higher park quality was related to more weekly minutes of recreational walking. No significant relationships with other recreational MVPA and no moderating effects of gender, education level, functional limitations and area of residence were observed.ConclusionsParks may stimulate engagement in recreational walking among non-retirees and more walking among those who already walk. Future research should investigate which environmental factors relate to engagement in recreational walking among retirees and examine whether improvements in park quality actually lead to increases in mid-older aged adults’ recreational walking.

BackgroundUnderstanding the relationship between urban design and physical activity is a high priority. Different representations of land use diversity may impact the association between neighbourhood design and specific walking behaviours. This study examined different entropy based computations of land use mix (LUM) used in the development of walkability indices (WIs) and their association with walking behaviour.MethodsParticipants in the RESIDential Environments project (RESIDE) self-reported mins/week of recreational, transport and total walking using the Neighbourhood Physical Activity Questionnaire (n = 1798). Land use categories were incrementally added to test five different LUM models to identify the strongest associations with recreational, transport and total walking. Logistic regression was used to analyse associations between WIs and walking behaviour using three cut points: any (> 0 mins), ≥ 60 mins and ≥ 150 mins walking/week.ResultsParticipants in high (vs. low) walkable neighbourhoods reported up to almost twice the amount of walking, irrespective of the LUM measure used. However, different computations of LUM were found to be relevant for different types and amounts of walking (i.e., > 0, ≥ 60 or ≥ 150 mins/week). Transport walking (≥ 60 mins/week) had the strongest and most significant association (OR = 2.24; 95% CI:1.58-3.18) with the WI when the LUM included 'residential', 'retail', 'office', 'health, welfare and community', and 'entertainment, culture and recreation'. However, any (> 0 mins/week) recreational walking was more strongly associated with the WI (OR = 1.36; 95% CI:1.04-1.78) when land use categories included 'public open space', 'sporting infrastructure' and 'primary and rural' land uses. The observed associations were generally stronger for ≥ 60 mins/week compared with > 0 mins/week of transport walking and total walking but this relationship was not seen for recreational walking.ConclusionsVarying the combination of land uses in the LUM calculation of WIs affects the strength of relationships with different types (and amounts) of walking. Future research should examine the relationship between walkability and specific types and different amounts of walking. Our results provide an important first step towards developing a context-specific WI that is associated with recreational walking. Inherent problems with administrative data and the use of entropy formulas for the calculation of LUM highlight the need to explore alternative or complimentary measures of the environment.

What is ‘neighborhood walkability’? How the built environment differently correlates with walking for different purposes and with walking on weekdays and weekends

We examined associations of attractiveness, size, and proximity of multiple neighborhood open spaces (NOSs) with recreational walking. Adults participating in the Residential Environments (RESIDE) study (n=1366) in Perth, Australia, reported time spent engaging in recreational walking within their neighborhoods. Park audit data and geographic information systems were used to identify the most attractive, largest, and nearest NOS within a 1.6-km radius from each participant's residential location. Regression analysis was used to examine attributes (attractiveness, size, and proximity) of these open spaces and their associations with participants' recreational walking. Shorter distance to attractive open spaces was associated with doing any recreational walking, but adults with larger attractive open spaces within 1.6 km of their home were more likely to walk 150 minutes or more in a week. For adults, the presence of a large, high-quality park within walking distance of one's home may be more important in promoting sufficient amounts of walking for health benefits than is the presence of an open space within a shorter distance.

Studies of neighborhood effects on health that are based on cohort data are subject to bias induced by neighborhood-related selective study participation. We used data from the RECORD Cohort Study (REsidential Environment and CORonary heart Disease) carried out in the Paris metropolitan area, France (n = 7233). We performed separate and joint modeling of neighborhood determinants of study participation and type-2 diabetes. We sought to identify selective participation related to neighborhood, and account for any biasing effect on the associations with diabetes. After controlling for individual characteristics, study participation was higher for people residing close to the health centers and in neighborhoods with high income, high property values, high proportion of the population looking for work, and low built surface and low building height (contextual effects adjusted for each other). After individual-level adjustment, the prevalence of diabetes was elevated in neighborhoods with the lowest levels of educational attainment (prevalence odds ratio = 1.56 [95% credible interval = 1.06-2.31]). Neighborhood effects on participation did not bias the association between neighborhood education and diabetes. However, residual geographic variations in participation weakly biased the neighborhood education-diabetes association. Bias correction through the joint modeling of neighborhood determinants of participation and diabetes resulted in an 18% decrease in the log prevalence odds ratio for low versus high neighborhood education. Researchers should develop a comprehensive, theory-based model of neighborhood determinants of participation in their study, investigate resulting biases for the environment-health associations, and check that unexplained geographic variations in participation do not bias these environment-health relationships.

Background:There is limited longitudinal evidence confirming the role of neighborhood environment attributes in encouraging people to walk more or if active people simply choose to live in activity-friendly neighborhoods. Natural experiments of policy changes to create more walkable communities provide stronger evidence for a causal effect of neighborhood environments on residents’ walking.Objectives:We aimed to investigate longitudinal associations between objective and perceived neighborhood environment measures and neighborhood recreational walking.Methods:We analyzed longitudinal data collected over 8 yr (four surveys) from the RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) Study (Perth, Australia, 2003–2012). At each time point, participants reported the frequency and total minutes of recreational walking/week within their neighborhood and neighborhood environment perceptions. Objective measures of the neighborhood environment were generated using a Geographic Information System (GIS).Results:Local recreational walking was influenced by objectively measured access to a medium-/large-size park, beach access, and higher street connectivity, which was reduced when adjusted for neighborhood perceptions. In adjusted models, positive perceptions of access to a park and beach, higher street connectivity, neighborhood esthetics, and safety from crime were independent determinants of increased neighborhood recreational walking. Local recreational walking increased by 9 min/wk (12% increase in frequency) for each additional perceived neighborhood attribute present.Conclusions:Our findings provide urban planners and policy makers with stronger causal evidence of the positive impact of well-connected neighborhoods and access to local parks of varying sizes on local residents’ recreational walking and health. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP823

BackgroundNumerous cross-sectional studies have investigated the premise that the perception of crime will cause residents to constrain their walking; however the findings to date are inconclusive. In contrast, few longitudinal or prospective studies have examined the impact of crime-related safety on residents walking behaviours. This study used longitudinal data to test whether there is a causal relationship between crime-related safety and walking in the local neighbourhood.MethodsParticipants in the RESIDential Environments Project (RESIDE) in Perth, Australia, completed a questionnaire before moving to their new neighbourhood (n = 1813) and again approximately one (n = 1467), three (n = 1230) and seven years (n = 531) after relocating. Self-report measures included neighbourhood perceptions (modified NEWS items) and walking inside the neighbourhood (min/week). Objective built environmental measures were generated for each participant’s 1600 m neighbourhood at each time-point, and the count of crimes reported to police were generated at the suburb-level for the first three time-points only. The impact of crime-related safety on walking was examined in SAS using the Proc Mixed procedure (marginal repeated measures model with unrestricted variance pattern). Initial models controlled for demographics, time and self-selection, and subsequent models progressively adjusted for other built and social environment factors based on a social ecological model.ResultsFor every increase of one level on a five-point Likert scale in perceived safety from crime, total walking within the local neighbourhood increased by 18.0 min/week (p = 0.000). This relationship attenuated to an increase of 10.5 min/week after accounting for other built and social environment factors, but remained significant (p = 0.008). Further analyses examined transport and recreational walking separately. In the fully adjusted models, each increase in safety from crime was associated with a 7.0 min/week increase in recreational walking (p = 0.009), however findings for transport walking were non-significant. All associations between suburb-level crime and walking were non-significant.ConclusionsThis study provides longitudinal evidence of a potential causal relationship between residents’ perceptions of safety from crime and recreational walking. Safety perceptions appeared to influence recreational walking, rather than transport-related walking. Given the popularity of recreational walking and the need to increase levels of physical activity, community social and physical environmental interventions that foster residents’ feelings of safety are likely to increase recreational walking and produce public health gains.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0343-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

IntroductionAssessing the contextual factors that influence walking for transportation is important to develop more walkable environments and promote physical activity. To advance previous research focused on residential environments and overall walking for transportation, the present study investigates objective environmental factors assessed around the residence, the workplace, the home – work itinerary, and the home – supermarket itinerary, and considered overall walking for transportation but also walking to work and to shops.MethodsData from the RECORD Study involving 7290 participants recruited in 2007–2008, aged 30–79 years, and residing in the Paris metropolitan area were analyzed. Multilevel ordinal regression analyses were conducted to investigate environmental characteristics associated with self-reported overall walking for transportation, walking to work, and walking to shops.ResultsHigh individual education was associated with overall walking for transportation, with walking to work, and walking to shops. Among workers, a high residential neighborhood education was associated with increased overall walking for transportation, while a high workplace neighborhood education was related to an increased time spent walking to work. The residential density of destinations was positively associated with overall walking for transportation, with walking to work, and with walking to shops, while the workplace density of destinations was positively associated with overall walking for transportation among workers. Environmental factors assessed around the itineraries were not associated with walking to work or to the shops.ConclusionThis research improves our understanding of the role of the environments on walking for transportation by accounting for some of the environments visited beyond the residential neighborhood. It shows that workers' walking habits are more influenced by the density of destinations around the workplace than around the residence. These results provide insight for the development of policies and programs to encourage population level active commuting.

Cohort Profile: Residential and non-residential environments, individual activity spaces and cardiovascular risk factors and diseases--The RECORD Cohort Study

It has long been known that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is a potent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.1 Much effort has been devoted to identifying the mechanisms responsible for this risk, because knowledge of these mechanisms is essential to guide the development of interventions to prevent or ameliorate the health-damaging effects. By showing that increased systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels in persons of lower educational attainment in a large sample drawn from the Paris metropolitan area are mediated to a significant extent by increased body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and resting heart rate (HR), the report by Chaix et al2 in this issue of Hypertension makes an important contribution toward achieving this goal. Much work remains to be done, however, because the proportion of the association between lower individual education and elevated SBP explained by BMI/waist circumference and resting HR is 28.0% and 14.7%, respectively, meaning that a substantial proportion of the effect of lower education on SBP is mediated by other factors. Moreover, although it is helpful to know that one way lower education gets inside the body to raise blood pressure is via increased BMI, central fat accumulation, and resting HR, it is by no means clear how lower education gets inside the body to influence these mediators of increased blood pressure. Psychosocial risk factors like hostility, depression, and social isolation are increased in lower SES groups3,4 and, therefore, deserve attention …

Residential buffer, perceived neighborhood, and individual activity space: New refinements in the definition of exposure areas – The RECORD Cohort Study

Public open spaces and walking for recreation: Moderation by attributes of pedestrian environments