BACKGROUND Parks provide ideal open spaces for leisure-time physical activity and important venues to promote physical activity. The spatial configuration of parks, the number of parks and their spatial distribution across neighborhood areas or local regions, represents the basic park access potential for their residential populations. A new measure of spatial access to parks, population-weight...

OBJECTIVE While behavioral change is necessary to reverse the obesity epidemic, it can be difficult to achieve and sustain in unsupportive residential environments. This study hypothesized that environmental resources supporting walking and a healthy diet are associated with reduced obesity incidence. DESIGN AND METHODS Data came from 4,008 adults aged 45-84 at baseline who participated in a ...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the influence of the residential neighborhood of older adults on the prevalence of disability. METHODS We combined Census data on disability in older adults living in New York City with environmental information from a comprehensive geospatial database. We used factor analysis to derive dimensions of compositional and physical neighborhood characteristics and linear ...

Using multilevel analysis we find that residents of "stressed" neighborhoods have higher levels of depression than residents of less "stressed" neighborhoods. Data for individuals are from two cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey, a national probability sample of 56,428 adults living in 25 Census Metropolitan Areas in Canada, with linked information about the respondents' census tract...

Residential self-selection bias is a concern in studies of neighborhoods and health. This bias results from health behaviors predicting neighborhood choice. To quantify this bias, we examined associations between pre-move health factors (body mass index, walking, and total physical activity) and post-move neighborhood factors (County Sprawl Index, Census tract socioeconomic status (SES)) in the...

Black residential segregation has been declining in the United States. That accomplishment rings hollow, however, if blacks continue to live in much poorer neighborhoods than other Americans. This study uses census data for all US metropolitan areas in 1980 and 2010 to compare decline in the neighborhood poverty gap between blacks and other Americans with decline in the residential segregation ...

While urban form in general and density in particular are believed by many to significantly influence travel behavior, various recent studies have argued that the true determinants of travel patterns are attitudes rather than land use characteristics. This research builds on this notion and investigates to what extent a lack of congruence between physical neighborhood structure and preferences ...

This study examines how prior neighborhood characteristics affect youth’s offending when youths move into an incarceration context. Neighborhood ethnic heterogeneity, residential stability, and disadvantage are often predictive of neighborhood crime, but it is unclear how these neighborhood constructs continue to affect youth’s behavior inside a secure facility. In a sample of recently incarcer...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated a neighborhood environment survey and compared the physical activity and weight status of the residents in 2 neighborhoods. METHODS On 2 occasions, 107 adults from neighborhoods with differing "walkability" were selected to complete a survey on their neighborhood environment. Physical activity was assessed by self-report and by accelerometer; height and weight ...

Researchers measuring racial inequality of neighborhood environment across metropolitan areas (MAs) have traditionally employed segregation measures, yet such measures are limited for incorporating a third axis of information, including neighborhood opportunity. Using Census 2000 tract-level data for the largest U.S. MAs, we introduce the interquartile-range overlap statistic to summarize the s...