Abstract
This study assessed whether perceptual and researcher-rated measures of neighborhood-built environments (BEs) predict device-based multiple activity-related outcomes, specifically: moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity (LPA), and sedentary time (ST), in children. Eight hundred and sixteen children aged 9–14 years from Saskatoon, Canada, were surveyed on their perceptions of BE, and their PA outcomes were objectively monitored for one week at three different time frames over a one-year period, September 2014 to August 2015. The researcher-rated BE measures were collected by trained researchers using multiple BE audit tools: neighborhood active living potential (NALP) and Irvine Minnesota inventory (IMI), 2009–2010. A multilevel modeling approach was taken to understand BE influences of children’s PA outcomes. Children’s perceived availability of parks and sidewalks predicted a higher accumulation of MVPA and a lower accumulation of ST. Children’s report of the absence of neighborhood social disorder (e.g., threats from scary dogs/people) predicted a higher LPA, while reported concern about crime predicted a lower MVPA. Researcher-rated neighborhood activity friendliness predicted a lower ST, however, researcher-rated safety from crime predicted a higher ST. Perceived BE characteristic were stronger predictors of children’s PA outcomes compared to researcher-rated BE factors.
Highlights
Regular physical activity (PA) helps children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, flexibility, and bone density and reduces the health risk of childhood obesity and other chronic diseases [1]
Over the one-year collection period, participants accumulated a daily mean of 39.4 moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), 335.4 light physical activity (LPA), and 271.4 sedentary time (ST)
This paper provides an understanding of the perceived or researcher-rated neighborhood built environment (BE) characteristics associated with childhood physical activity and sedentary time over an entire school year
Summary
Regular physical activity (PA) helps children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, flexibility, and bone density and reduces the health risk of childhood obesity and other chronic diseases [1]. Many children in Canada do not get the recommended amount of PA and spend the majority of their time engaged in sedentary behavior [2]. Canadian children spend on average 9 h of their weekday leisure time in a sedentary state, [3] well above the Canadian Society for Exercise. Physiology’s recommended limit of children’s sedentary time (ST) of no more than 2 h per day [4]. Current trends of PA behavior among children has resulted in a call to study what extrinsic factors shape children’s PA and ST patterns throughout the day. Children’s movement, or lack of it, represents a complex behavior that is influenced by multiple factors including demographic, biological, social, and psychological factors as well as the environments in which they live. Multilevel ecological approaches are widely invoked to guide research, to identify determinants of PA, and to
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