Carlson JA, Saelens BE, Kerr J, Schipperijn J, Conway TL, Frank LD, Chapman JE, Glanz K, Cain KL, Sallis JF. Health Place 2015; 32C: 1-7.
Affiliation
Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, 3900 Fifth Avenue, Suite 310, San Diego, CA 92103, USA. Electronic address: jsallis@ucsd.edu.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate relations of walking, bicycling and vehicle time to neighborhood walkability and total physical activity in youth.
METHODS: Participants (N=690) were from 380 census block groups of high/low walkability and income in two US regions. Home neighborhood residential density, intersection density, retail density, entertainment density and walkability were derived using GIS. Minutes/day of walking, bicycling and vehicle time were derived from processing algorithms applied to GPS. Accelerometers estimated total daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Models were adjusted for nesting of days (N=2987) within participants within block groups.
RESULTS: Walking occurred on 33%, active travel on 43%, and vehicle time on 91% of the days observed. Intersection density and neighborhood walkability were positively related to walking and bicycling and negatively related to vehicle time. Residential density was positively related to walking.
CONCLUSIONS: Increasing walking in youth could be effective in increasing total physical activity. Built environment findings suggest potential for increasing walking in youth through improving neighborhood walkability.