Longitudinal changes in transport-related and recreational walking: The role of life events

Abstract

Walking is a common form of physical activity and has a considerable impact on public health. Walking behavior may change over time due to life events, including residential relocation. Only a few studies based on longitudinal data have examined the impacts of life events on walking behavior. The present study investigated the extent to which life events lead to changes in transport-related and recreational walking duration, by analyzing longitudinal panel data from the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN) for the years 2013 and 2015. In total, 1185 respondents aged 18 or older who completed both survey waves were included in our sample. Multilevel mixed-effects Tobit regression models were fitted and showed that both childbirth and relocation to less urbanized areas were related to an increase in transport-related walking over time. No significant associations of life events with recreational walking were observed. Findings suggest that transport-related walking is more likely to be influenced by changes in the household composition and residential relocation than recreational walking. Further longitudinal research is needed to verify our findings and gain insight into the mechanisms underlying these relationships.