Walking is the most popular choice of aerobic physical activity to improve health among U.S. adults. Physical characteristics of the home neighborhood can facilitate or hinder walking. The purpose of this study was to quantify neighborhood walking, using objective methods and to examine the association between counts of walking bouts in the home neighborhood and neighborhood walkability. This w...

BACKGROUND Mass media campaigns are widely used in Australia and elsewhere to promote physical activity among adults. Neighbourhood walkability is consistently shown to be associated with walking and total activity. Campaigns may have different effects on individuals living in high and low walkable neighbourhoods. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to compare pre- and post-campaign cognitiv...

OBJECTIVES We estimated associations between objectively determined neighbourhood 'walkability' attributes and accelerometer-derived sedentary time (ST) by sex, city or type of day. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. SETTING The URBAN (Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods) study was conducted in 48 neighbourhoods across four cities in New Zealand (August 2008 to O...

This study examined neighborhood built environment characteristics (fast-food restaurant density, walkability) and individual eating-out and physical activity behaviors in relation to 1-year change in body weight among adults 50-75 years of age at baseline. The authors surveyed 1,145 residents recruited from 120 neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon. During the 1-year follow-up (2006-2007 to 2007-2...

The characteristics of built environments are the subject of intense consideration in the search for solutions to promote wellbeing and a higher quality of life among the inhabitants of cities. Walkability, defined as the extent to which the built environment is friendly to living and fulfilling the needs of the area, has become an important concept in sustainable urban design, public health an...

BACKGROUND Walking in neighborhood environments is undertaken for different purposes including for transportation and leisure. We examined whether sidewalk availability was associated with participation in, and minutes of neighborhood-based walking for transportation (NWT) and recreation (NWR) after controlling for neighborhood self-selection. METHOD Baseline survey data from respondents (n =...

BACKGROUND Too much sitting, including time spent sitting in cars, is associated with poor health outcomes. Identifying the built-environment attributes that may reduce vehicular sitting time can inform future initiatives linking the public health, urban design, and transportation sectors. METHODS Data collected in 2003-2004 from adult residents (n = 2521) of Adelaide, Australia were used. Lo...

The effect of residential neighborhood characteristics on a child's risk of serious motor vehicle traffic occupant injuries was evaluated in New York State, USA, for the years 1993-2003, with particular focus on the effect of neighborhood walkability. Risk increased significantly (p < 0.0001) with decreasing street connectivity and as more workers commuted more than 30 min using means other tha...

The present study explored whether perceived neighborhood environmental attributes associated with physical activity differ by neighborhood income. Adults aged 20-65 years (n=2199; 48% female; mean age=45 years; 26% ethnic minority) were recruited from 32 neighborhoods from the Seattle, WA and Baltimore, MD regions that varied in objectively measured walkability and neighborhood income. Perceiv...

The United Nations has defined the inclusive community as “...promoting growth with equity, a place where everyone, regardless of their economic means, gender, race, ethnicity or religion, is enabled and empowered to fully participate in the social, economic and political opportunities that cities have to offer”. In this paper, the concept of walkability is viewed as an important tool towards t...