Abstract
BackgroundThe study explores associations between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality, which in Latin America and Brazil have been scarcely studied and with inconsistent results.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 14,749 individuals who participated in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (Estudo Longitudinal de Saúde do Adulto, ELSA-Brasil) baseline. The study included current and retired civil servants, aged between 35 and 74 years, from universities and research institutes in six Brazilian states. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) long form was used to characterize physical activity during leisure time and commuting; additional questions assessed how often fruit and vegetables were consumed, as a proxy for diet quality. Neighbourhood characteristics were evaluated by the “Walking Environment” and “Availability of Healthy Foods” scales originally used in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Associations were examined using multinomial logistic regression.ResultsPerceiving a more walkable neighbourhood was positively associated with engaging in leisure time physical activity and doing so for longer weekly. Compared with those who saw their neighbourhood as less walkable, those who perceived it as more walkable had 1.69 (95 % CI 1.57–1.83) and 1.39 (1.28–1.52) greater odds of engaging in leisure time physical activity for more than 150 min/week or up to 150 min/week (vs. none), respectively. Perceiving a more walkable neighbourhood was also positively associated with transport-related physical activity. The same pattern was observed for diet: compared with participants who perceived healthy foods as less available in their neighbourhood, those who saw them as more available had odds 1.48 greater (1.31–1.66) of eating fruits, and 1.47 greater (1.30–1.66) of eating vegetables, more than once per day.ConclusionsPerceived walkability and neighbourhood availability of healthy food were independently associated with the practice of physical activity and diet quality, respectively, underlining the importance of neighbourhood-level public policies to changing and maintaining health-related habits.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3447-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The study explores associations between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality, which in Latin America and Brazil have been scarcely studied and with inconsistent results
Women, individuals with lower levels of education and lower mean per capita income were the least active or, when they did engage in physical activity, did so for the least time weekly
With regard to leisure time physical activity, additional evidence presented in a population-based study in Seoul, South Korea, showed that satisfaction with security and with the existence of free park and recreation facilities in the neighbourhood was positively associated with vigorous physical activity among women [44]
Summary
The study explores associations between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality, which in Latin America and Brazil have been scarcely studied and with inconsistent results. Physical activity is an important determinant of health and body weight, and is associated with the incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases [2, 3]. Unhealthy diets are associated with major public health problems, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, both in Brazil and worldwide [6, 7]. Investigations into how residential environment or neighbourhood characteristics influence health are important in generating empirical evidence to inform public policies based on the rationale that choice of health habits is not solely the individual’s responsibility, but is strongly related to constraints imposed by lack of material resources and by specific social groups’ behavioural norms [9, 10]
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