Activity Participation Behavior Research Articles

Structural Equation Model to Analyze Sociodemographics, Activity Participation, and Trip Chaining between Household Heads

Research in developed countries has demonstrated a significant relationship between activity participation and travel behavior. Less work has been done in China, a typical developing country. Data from an activity–travel survey of 1,205 households in Shangyu, China, were used for a simultaneous structural equation model analysis of sociodemographics, activity participation, and trip chaining between household heads. Model estimation results show that activity participation is strongly correlated to trip chaining characteristics. Additionally, interactions exist between male and female household heads. It was found that the sociodemographics of male and female heads not only directly affected trip chaining but also indirectly influenced trip chaining behavior through activity participation. The findings of the study provide useful insight into the within-personal and cross-personal interactions of activity–travel behaviors between male and female heads in China.

Modeling the Interactions between Activity Participation and Time Use Behaviors over the Course of a Day

Modeling the Interactions between Activity Participation and Time Use Behaviors over the Course of a Day

A structural equation model of activity participation and travel behavior using longitudinal data

This paper presents a dynamic structural equation model (SEM) that explicitly addresses complicated causal relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation, and travel behavior. The model assumes that activity participation and travel patterns in the current year are affected by those in previous years. Using the longitudinal dataset collected from Puget sound transportation panel ‘wave 3’ and ‘wave 4,’ these assumptions are tested with suggested SEMs. Within each wave, the model is structured to have a three-level causal relationship that describes interactions among endogenous variables under time-budget constraints. The resulting coefficients representing the activity durations indicate that people tend to allocate their time according to the importance and the obligation of the activity level. Results from the dynamic SEM confirm the fact that people's current activity and travel behavior do have effects on those in the future. The resulting model also shows that activity participation and travel behavior in ‘wave 3’ are closely related to those in ‘wave 4.’ These explicit explanations of relationships among variables could provide important perspectives in the activity-based approach which becomes recognized as a better analytical tool for the transportation planning and policy making process.

An analysis of weekly out-of-home discretionary activity participation and time-use behavior

Activity-travel behavior research has hitherto focused on the modeling and understanding of daily time use and activity patterns and resulting travel demand. In this particular paper, an analysis and modeling of weekly activity-travel behavior is presented using a unique multi-week activity-travel behavior data set collected in and around Zurich, Switzerland. The paper focuses on six categories of discretionary activity participation to understand the determinants of, and the inter-personal and intra-personal variability in, weekly activity engagement at a detailed level. A panel version of the Mixed Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value model (MMDCEV) that explicitly accounts for the panel (or repeated-observations) nature of the multi-week activity-travel behavior data set is developed and estimated on the data set. The model also controls for individual-level unobserved factors that lead to correlations in activity engagement preferences across different activity types. To our knowledge, this is the first formulation and application of a panel MMDCEV structure in the econometric literature. The analysis suggests the high prevalence of intra-personal variability in discretionary activity engagement over a multi-week period along with inter-personal variability that is typically considered in activity-travel modeling. In addition, the panel MMDCEV model helped identify the observed socio-economic factors and unobserved individual specific factors that contribute to variability in multi-week discretionary activity participation.

Life Dynamism Explorations on Perceived Quality of Life and Social Exchange Paradigms in Casino Settings

This study explores quality of life (QOL) perceptions associated with casino gambling and examines the causes of variations in those perceptions using an integrated version of age-graded phenomenon and life characteristics. This study further examines the affects of gaming activity participation as a leisure activity on subsequent support for the casino gambling activity within the context of social exchange theory (SET). Data were collected from local residents residing within a 50-mile radius of existing casinos in a U.S. midwestern state. Results indicate similar gambling activity participation behavior across age groups. In addition, more subtle affects of age and life characteristics across age groups for the casino gambling activity are noted. Traces of similarities in perceptions, participation, and SET behavior are found to be more notable than absent.

Disparities in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors Among US Children and Adolescents: Prevalence, Correlates, and Intervention Implications

Regular physical activity is important for health benefits among youth, but disparities exist. This paper describes disparities in physical activity participation and sedentary behaviors among youth in the United States, provides intervention implications, and offers recommendations for future research focused on reducing disparities related to levels of physical activity. Secondary analysis of national accelerometer data showed that achievement of recommended levels of physical activity ranged across subgroups from 2% to 61%. Mean hours per day spent in sedentary behavior ranged from 5.5 to 8.5. The largest disparities were by gender and age. An improved understanding of correlates may inform the design of interventions to increase physical activity in targeted subgroups. Additional theoretically based research is needed to elucidate which factors contributing to physical activity disparities are amenable to change via intervention. To eliminate health disparities, changes in policies that have an impact on physical activity may be necessary to promote physical activity among high-risk youth.

Location Choice Modeling for Shopping and Leisure Activities with MATSim

The activity-based multiagent simulation toolkit MATSim adopts a coevolutionary approach to capturing the patterns of people's activity scheduling and participation behavior at a high level of detail. Until now, the search space of the MATSim system was formed by every agent's route and time choice. This paper focuses on the crucial computational issues that have to be addressed when the system is being extended to include location choice. This results in an enormous search space that would be impossible to explore exhaustively within a reasonable time. With the use of a large-scale scenario, it is shown that the system rapidly converges toward a system's fixed point if the agents’ choices are per iteration confined to local steps. This approach was inspired by local search methods in numerical optimization. The study shows that the approach can be incorporated easily and consistently into MATSim by using Hägerstrand's time–geographic approach. This paper additionally presents a first approach to improving the behavioral realism of the MATSim location choice module. A singly constrained model is created; it introduces competition for slots on the activity infrastructure, where the actual load is coupled with time-dependent capacity restraints for every activity location and is incorporated explicitly into the agent's location choice process. As expected, this constrained model reduces the number of implausibly overcrowded activity locations. To the authors’ knowledge, incorporating competition in the activity infrastructure has received only marginal attention in multiagent simulations to date, and thus, this contribution is also meant to raise the issue by presenting this new model.

An exploratory analysis of joint-activity participation characteristics using the American time use survey

This paper presents a detailed exploratory analysis of joint activity participation characteristics using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). As a very large nationwide survey that explicitly elicited information on both household and non-household companions for each activity episode, the ATUS is ideally suited for this analysis. Several intuitive and interesting results are obtained. Joint episodes are found to be of longer durations, significantly likely to take place at the residence of other people, and often confined to certain time periods of the weekday. In addition, important differences in these characteristics are also observed based on activity purpose, companion type, and the day of the week. These findings are intended to provide the basis for the justification of detailed collection of joint activity–travel participation information in household activity–travel surveys, and also as a stimulant for further empirical analysis and modeling of joint activity participation behavior.

The Effects of Response Cards on Active Participation and Social Behavior of Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

The authors used an ABAB design to evaluate the effects of response cards on the active responding and social behavior of eight elementary-aged students with moderate and severe disabilities. The study occurred during a calendar group activity, and each condition was implemented for 5 to 8 days. During all conditions, the instructor asked nine questions each session. In the A conditions, the students raised their hands to answer the instructor’s questions while in the B conditions, students responded by placing 3 × 3 in. cards on a response board. Results indicated that use of response boards increased active responding for six students and on-task behavior for all students. However, rates of inappropriate behavior were variable across students.

Medical Specialists’ Patient-Centered Communication and Patient-Reported Outcomes

Physicians' patient-centered communication in the medical consultation is generally expected to improve patient outcomes. However, empirical evidence is contradictory so far, and most studies were done in primary care. We sought to determine the association of specialists' patient-centered communication with patient satisfaction, adherence, and health status. Residents and specialists in internal medicine (n = 30) and their patients (n = 323) completed a questionnaire before a (videotaped) follow-up encounter. Patients' satisfaction was assessed immediately after the consultation and their self-reported treatment adherence, symptoms, and distress 2 weeks later. Specialists' patient-centered communication was assessed by coding behaviors that facilitate or rather inhibit patients to express their perspective. Patient participation was assessed by determining their relative contribution to the conversation and their active participation behavior. Outcomes were assessed using standard questionnaires. Analyses accounted for relevant patient, visit and physician characteristics. Medical specialists' facilitating behavior was associated with greater satisfaction in patients who were less confident in communicating with their doctor. Patient-centered communication was not associated with patients' health status or adherence in general, but facilitating behavior was positively related to the adherence of patients with a foreign primary language. In general, patients appeared to be more satisfied after an encounter with a more-facilitating and a less-inhibiting physician, but these associations diminished when controlling for background characteristics. We conclude that the absence of strong associations between patient-centered communication and patient-reported outcomes may be explained by medical specialists being responsive to patients' characteristics.

The clinical context and patient participation in post-diagnostic consultations

Objective Although patient participation is an important feature of patient-centered health care, few studies have examined how the clinical context affects patient involvement in medical encounters. This investigation examined the way patients communicate with physicians in two diverse post-diagnostic settings, post-angiogram consultations and initial lung cancer visits. Methods From transcripts and audiorecordings of post-angiogram consultations ( n = 88) and initial lung cancer visits ( n = 62) within a VA hospital in the United States, three measures of patient participation were coded—number of active participation behaviors (questions, acts of assertiveness, and expressions of concern), proportion of patients’ utterances in the form of active participation, and conversational involvement (ratio of patient utterances to physician plus patient utterances). Mixed linear regression procedures assessed the independent effects of the clinical setting, physicians’ facilitative communication (partnership-building and supportive talk), and patients’ age, education, and ethnicity on patient participation. Results Not only was their less talk in the post-angiogram consultations compared with the lung cancer visits, heart patients also were less conversationally involved (accounted for 25% of the talk) than were lung cancer patients (45% of the talk) and their doctors used proportionally less facilitative talk than did the lung cancer physicians. In both settings, patients were more conversationally engaged when proportionally more of the physicians’ talk was facilitative. Conclusions The clinical context has a profound effect on patient participation. However, within individual settings, physicians can increase patient involvement by using partnering and supportive communication. Practice implications Clinicians and administrators should assess clinical practices that restrict patient involvement in ways that could affect quality of decision-making.

Patient Participation in Medical Consultations

Patients vary in their willingness and ability to actively participate in medical consultations. Because more active patient participation contributes to improved health outcomes and quality of care, it is important to understand factors affecting the way patients communicate with healthcare providers. The objectives of this study were to examine the extent to which patient participation in medical interactions is influenced by 1) the patient's personal characteristics (age, gender, education, ethnicity); 2) the physician's communication style (eg, use of partnership-building and supportive talk); and 3) the clinical setting (eg, the health condition, medical specialty). The authors conducted a post hoc cross-sectional analysis of 279 physician-patient interactions from 3 clinical sites: 1) primary care patients in Sacramento, California, 2) patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from the San Francisco Bay area, and 3) patients with lung cancer from a VA hospital in Texas. The outcome measures included the degree to which patients asked questions, were assertive, and expressed concerns and the degree to which physicians used partnership-building and supportive talk (praise, reassurance, empathy) in their consultations. The majority of active participation behaviors were patient-initiated (84%) rather than prompted by physician partnership-building or supportive talk. Patients who were more active participants received more facilitative communication from physicians, were more educated, and were more likely to be white than of another ethnicity. Women more willingly expressed negative feelings and concerns. There was considerable variability in patient participation across the 3 clinical settings. Female physicians were more likely to use supportive talk than males, and physicians generally used less supportive talk with nonwhite compared with white patients. Patient participation in medical encounters depends on a complex interplay of personal, physician, and contextual factors. Although more educated and white patients tended to be more active participants than their counterparts, the strongest predictors of patient participation were situation-specific, namely the clinical setting and the physician's communicative style. Physicians could more effectively facilitate patient involvement by more frequently using partnership-building and supportive communication. Future research should investigate how the nuances of individual clinical settings (eg, the health condition, time allotted for the visit) impose constraints or opportunities for more effective patient involvement in care.

New modality of aging control: restore principle as the paradigm

New modality of aging control: restore principle as the paradigm

Phenotypic adjustment of senescent cells: Replace or restore

The historical concept of aging as an irreversible, inevitable, and inefficient biologic status led to the deterministic view of aging, which resulted in the replacement principle of aging control. For this purpose, the replacements of genes, cells, tissues, or organs have been proposed, but without satisfactory results. The novel concept of aging as a responsive and adaptive response to survival has resulted in the development of a new hypothesis of aging; namely, the Gate Theory. The prerequisites of the new hypothesis are gatekeeper molecules and a responsive aging field. Based on this concept, the modulation of gatekeeper molecules affects the cellular aging field, and result in the adjustment of the senescent phenotype. As a candidate for such molecules, caveolin has been examined with respect to its association with the aging phenotype. This new concept proposes the possibility of a restoration principle, which changes our view of aging in the community from simple longevity to a functional longevity. Functional longevity engenders the notions of active participation, positive thinking, and responsible behavior by the elderly. Therefore, it can be suggested that now is the time to accept the restoration principle as a key approach to individual aging control as well as the long live community in substitution with replace principle.

Multilevel Structural Equation Model for Activity Participation and Travel Behavior: Data from the Puget Sound Transportation Panel

A multilevel structural equation model (SEM) is applied to handle the hierarchical nature of the data and explain complex relationships among socioeconomic factors for individuals and households, activity participation, and travel behavior by using data from Wave 3 of the Puget Sound Transportation Panel. On the basis of the model structure, variations in individual activity participation and travel behavior can be divided into two categories: within-household variation and between-household variation. Empirical results show that the interdependency index of leisure activity duration for household members within a household has a value of 0.33, indicating high interdependency. Total travel time duration likewise has a value of 0.26, indicating high similarity. These results suggest that the multilevel SEM approach is an appropriate modeling methodology and can provide additional information on activity and travel behavior. The effects from exogenous variables on endogenous variables developed in this study also provide meaningful and interpretable results, which are consistent with results of previous studies. Most personal and household characteristics influence activity participation and travel behavior within a household as well as between households.

Weekend Activity and Travel Behavior in a Developing Country: Empirical Study Using Multilevel Structural Equation Models

According to the government of the Republic of Korea, by 2010 workers throughout the country will have a 5-day workweek instead of the current 6-day one. The change will have a great impact on the lifestyles of the employed and their families and also on the transportation system, since travel patterns, traffic demand, and the patterns of congestion will change during the weekends. Before the policy becomes effective, negative impacts on the transportation system should be examined to conceive measures that will maintain a dependable level of service during the weekends. So far, however, little attention has been directed to the understanding of how policies affect travel behavior in Korea. In this study, activity participation and travel behavior are compared between two population groups, those currently working 5 days a week and those working 6 days a week. Understanding the difference is an essential component of the development of this policy in Korea, especially since the 5-day workweek will be instituted in the near future. The data set used in this study is the Seoul Metropolitan Area Transportation Survey, which was conducted in June 2002. Multilevel structural equation models (SEMs) are developed, which combine features of SEMs and multilevel analysis. The SEM makes possible the estimation of complex relationships among exogenous and endogenous variables, and multilevel analysis can interpret interdependency among hierarchical structural levels such as those within and between household levels simultaneously. With this approach, significant relationships were found among sociodemographics, activity participation, and travel behavior within households as well as between household models, captured simultaneously by the multilevel SEMs employed in this research.

Intershopping duration: an analysis using multiweek data

This study examines the rhythms in the shopping activity participation of individuals over a multiweek period by modeling the duration between successive shopping participations. A hazard-based duration model is used to model intershopping duration, and a latent segmentation method is applied to distinguish between erratic shoppers and regular shoppers. The paper applies the methodology to examine the regularity and frequency of shopping behavior of individuals using a continuous six-week travel survey collected in the cities of Halle and Karlsruhe in Germany in the fall of 1999. The empirical results underscore the need to adopt a flexible hazard model form for analyzing intershopping durations. The results also provide important insights into the determinants of the regularity and frequency of individuals’ shopping activity participation behavior.

Structural Equation Models of Day-to-Day Activity Participation and Travel Behavior in a Developing Country

A series of structural equation models are presented that capture relationships among sociodemographics, activity participation (time use), and travel behavior for each day during a week in a developing country (Korea). Complex and strong relationships among the endogenous and exogenous variables are explained. In addition, results are similar to findings in the existing literature in developed countries such as European countries and the United States. It is temporarily concluded that there are similar relationships between sociodemographics and travel behavior in developing and developed countries. It is also confirmed that activity patterns are significantly different on weekdays and weekends. Furthermore, during weekdays there are some day-to-day variations in the patterns of activity participation and travel behavior. Finally, the relationships among sociodemographics, activity participation, and travel behavior from the direct, indirect, and total effects in structural equation model systems are presented and explained. This study may contribute to an understanding of travel behavior in developing countries.

A structural equations analysis of commuters' activity and travel patterns

An exploratory analysis of commuters' activity and travel patterns was carried out using activity-based travel survey data collected in the Washington, DC metropolitan area to investigate and estimate relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation, and travel behavior. Structural equations modeling methodology was adopted to determine the structural relationships among commuters' demographics, activity patterns, trip generation, and trip chaining information. Three types of structural equations model systems were estimated: one that models relationships between travel and activity participation, another that captures trade-offs between in-home and out-of-home activity durations, and a third that models the generation of complex work trip chains. The model estimation results show that strong relationships do exist among commuters' socio-demographic characteristics, activity engagement information, and travel behavior. The finding that significant trade-offs exist between in-home and out-of-home activity participation is noteworthy in the context of in-home vs. out-of-home substitution effects. Virtually all of the results obtained in this paper corroborate earlier findings reported in the literature regarding relationships among time use, activity participation, and travel.

Socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior

This paper describes the development, estimation and interpretation of a model relating socio-demographics, activity participation (time use) and travel behavior. A complex set of interrelationships among the variables of interest is estimated simultaneously using the structural equation modeling methodology, with activity participation (time allocated to a number of activity types) and travel behavior endogenous to the model. The research reported here shows that complex relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior exist and can be captured by the structural equation model structure. Specifically, the results show that we can explain travel behavior better by including activity participation endogenously in the model, than through socio-demographics alone. Furthermore, the results reported here reveal the relationships between in-home and out-of-home activity participation and travel behavior. Lastly, the research shows that by examining the direct, indirect and total effects in the model system, we are able to better capture and understand the relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior. ©