Context and objectivesNeighbourhood effect research on obesity took off in the early 2000s and was composed of mostly cross-sectional observational studies interested in various characteristics of the built environment and the socioeconomic environment. To limit biases related to self-selection and life course exposures, many researchers apply longitudinal designs in their studies. Until now, no review has specifically and exclusively examined longitudinal studies and the specific designs of these studies. In this review, we intend to answer the following research question: how are the temporal measurements of contextual exposure and obesity outcomes integrated into longitudinal studies that explore how neighbourhood-level built and socioeconomic environments impact adult obesity?DesignA systematic search strategy was designed to address the research question. The search was performed in Embase, Web of Science and PubMed, targeting scientific papers published before 1 January 2018. The eligible studies reported results on adults, included exposure that was limited to neighbourhood characteristics at the submunicipal level, included an outcome limited to obesity proxies, and reported a design with at least two exposure measurements or two outcome measurements.ResultsThis scoping review identified 66 studies that fit the eligibility criteria. A wide variety of neighbourhood characteristics were also measured, making it difficult to draw general conclusions about associations between neighbourhood exposure and obesity. We applied a typology that classified studies by whether exposure and outcome were measured as varying or fixed. Using this typology, we found that 32 studies reported both neighbourhood exposure and obesity outcomes that were varying in time; 28 reported varying outcomes but fixed exposures; and 6 had fixed outcomes and varying exposures.ConclusionOur typology illustrates the variety of longitudinal designs that were used in the selected studies. In the light of our results, we make recommendations on how to better report longitudinal designs and facilitate comparisons between studies.

The desire to use public transport, or use it more frequently, can be an important indicator of people's intention to travel by public transport. However, the desired and relative desired travel amount (wanting to travel less or more) in the context of public transport use has not yet been analyzed. In this paper, we examine the relationship between actual and desired public transport frequency of 986 students of Laval University, Canada. Results indicate that most respondents have a desired public transport frequency close to their actual frequency. In line with the model of goal-directed behavior we found that -based on ordered logit models -the desire for frequently using public transport is positively affected by attitudes towards -and satisfaction with -public transport, while the desired public transport frequency positively influences actual public transport frequency. Besides positive effects of attitudes and satisfaction, we also found that the desire to travel more frequently by public transport is positively affected by easy car access and living in rural areas. This suggests that rural residents are potential public transport users who are perhaps restricted by their living context and that moving into urban areas may present an opportunity for them to increase public transport use. Finally, we also found that the intention to use public transport in later life (i.e., after university) is positively affected by respondents' desired public transport frequency.

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Active travel can contribute to physical activity achieved over a day. Previous studies have examined active travel associated with trips in various western countries, but few studies have examined this question for the Asian context. Japan has high levels of cycling, walking and public transport, similar to The Netherlands. Most studies have focused either on children or on adults separately, however, having children in a household will change the travel needs and wants of that household. Thus, here a household lifecycle stage approach is applied. Further, unlike many previous studies, the active travel related to public transport is included. Lastly, further to examining whether the built environment has an influence on the accumulation of active travel minutes, a binary logistic regression examines the built environment’s influence on the World Health Organization’s recommendations of physical activity. The findings suggest that there is a clear distinction between the urbanized centers and the surrounding towns and unurbanized areas. Further, active travel related to public transport trips is larger than pure walking trips. Females and children are more likely to achieve the WHO recommendations. Finally, car ownership is a strong negative influence.

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Background:The aim of this study was to explore the population-wide distribution in the practice of leisure-time physical activity among Canadian youth and how physical activity level is influenced by contextual features of the environment. Methods:We studied the self-reported leisure-time physical activity of 54 832 Canadians aged 12 to 17 years. Observations were structured according to a 4-level geographic hierarchy. The outcome studied was a dichotomous indicator that referred to achieving (or not) the recommended daily level of leisure-time physical activity. To investigate the influence of the contextual features, we conducted multilevel logistic regressions.Results: For both girls and boys, significant variations were observed between health regions and between neighbourhoods within the provinces. Girls who lived in an urban setting showed lower odds of achieving the recommended physical activity level, as did those surveyed during the winter. Boys surveyed during the winter also showed lower odds of achieving the recommended level, but living in an urban setting had no effect on activity levels. Analysis of province-level residuals showed that girls living in Quebec were less likely to achieve the recommended activity level as compared with the national mean, and girls living in Ontario and British Columbia were more likely to achieve that threshold. Boys living in Ontario were more likely to achieve the recommended activity level as compared with the national mean. Youth had up to a 17% increased chance of achieving the recommended physical activity level if they lived in a context with a higher activity achievement level.Interpretation: Leisure-time physical activity was associated with environmental factors at multiple geographic scales among Canadian youth. The variation was more important at the neighbourhood level. The results provide rationale for further investigation into how leisure-time physical activity is promoted in different contexts. Abstract ResearchResearch CMAJ OPEN CMAJ OPEN, 4(3) E437

Previous studies have indicated that factors such as the built environment, attitudes and past behaviour can influence travel behaviour. However, the possible effect of travel satisfaction on travel mode choice remains underexplored, despite many studies focusing on travel satisfaction over the past years. It is likely that individuals experiencing satisfying trips with a certain travel mode will use this mode (more) frequently for future trips. In this study—using data from 984 students from Laval University, Canada—we analyse how satisfaction with public transport and the frequency of public transport use affect the intention to use public transport in later life stages. Our results indicate that public transport frequency, public transport satisfaction and the interaction between these two factors (i.e., the frequency of (dis)satisfying public transport trips) significantly affect people’s intentions to use public transport in later life, although variations in effect sizes exist between different life stages. Making public transport more pleasant and increasing ridership of children and young adults (e.g., by giving them free public transport passes) may consequently result in a higher public transport frequency in later life stages. We argue that travel satisfaction can play an important role in the formation of habitual mode use, and that satisfying trips (if undertaken frequently) are likely to be repeated in the future.

IntroductionThe prevalence of obesity has increased significantly in the last three decades and became an important public health concern. Evidence of weight status variability at the neighbourhood level has led researchers to look more precisely at the characteristics of local geographic areas that might influence energy balance related behaviours, giving rise to the field of the ‘neighbourhood effect’ in public health research. Among an abundant literature about neighbourhood effects and obesity, we propose a protocol for a scoping review that will aim at determining how temporal measurements of residential neighbourhood exposure, individual covariates and weight outcome are integrated in longitudinal designs.Methods and analysisA list of relevant citations will be obtained through a comprehensive systematic database search in Pubmed, Web of Science and Embase. The search strategy will be designed using a broad definition of neighbourhood to take into account the heterogeneity of this concept in research. Two investigators will screen titles, abstracts and entire publications using predetermined eligibility criteria yielding a list of selected publications. Data from the publications included in the scoping review will be charted according to bibliographic information, study population, exposure, outcomes and results.Discussion and conclusionTo our knowledge, our protocol will yield the first scoping review regarding longitudinal designs of neighbourhood effect on obesity. Describing how longitudinal designs include temporal measurements of exposure, covariates and outcome is a necessary step in the quest to determine if or which contextual characteristics are likely to be involved in the development of obesity. Such information would bring new knowledge to complement current aetiological investigations and would contribute to enhancing resource allocation strategies for stakeholders in developing relevant interventions to prevent obesity and its negative impacts.