Association between Perceived Neighborhood Environment and Walking among Adults in 4 Cities in Japan

Abstract

BackgroundRecent research highlights the importance of environment as a determinant of physical activity; however, evidence among Japanese is sparse. The aim of this study was to examine the association between perceived neighborhood environment and neighborhood walking for multiple purposes among Japanese.MethodsWe conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study of 1461 Japanese adults (age: 48.2 ± 14.1 years, men: 44.8%). Neighborhood environment and walking were assessed by a validated questionnaire. The odds ratio of active walkers was calculated in relation to environmental characteristics after adjustment for age, sex, and other potential confounders.ResultsParticipants were more likely to walk when they perceived that there was high residential density (odds ratio, 1.47; 95% confidence interval, 1.11–1.96), fair land use mix–diversity (1.37, 1.04–1.81), good walking/cycling facilities (1.56, 1.19–2.04), and attractive aesthetics (1.49, 1.14–1.95). Environmental factors associated with walking differed with respect to the purpose for walking. The environmental characteristics associated with walking for daily errands and with walking for commuting were similar, and included residential density and land use mix. Walking for leisure was associated with walking/cycling facilities, aesthetics, and traffic safety. Stratified analyses showed some sex-specific associations. Among women, there was an unexpected inverse association of leisure walking with both residential density and land use mix–diversity.ConclusionsThe association between neighborhood environment and walking differed by walking purpose. The results were generally consistent with those of studies conducted in Western countries, except for the association of high residential density and good land use mix–diversity with less leisure walking in women. These results suggest possible targets for environmental interventions to promote walking.

Features of perceived neighborhood environment associated with daily walking time or habitual exercise: differences across gender, age, and employment status in a community–dwelling population of Japan

“…Street connectivity indicates the short distance between intersections, fewer dead ends, and better connective routes. A study conducted in another region in Japan reported that street connectivity was associated with WT [16]. The Cronbach's a of the street connectivity in the current study, which indicate internal consistency of each item of questionnaire, was relatively low.…”

“…Several studies showed that proximity and accessibility to destinations such as shops and service facilities especially influence transport walking [20,29]. Accessibility to various destinations has been reported to be associated with longer WT [10,11] and many studies reported gender difference in the association [14,16,19,21,27,28]. Accessibility to abundant destinations would be important for females because of their social role in daily house work, including daily shopping, especially in Japan.…”

“…Thus, the association between perceived NE and walking or exercise behavior possibly varies according to gender and age groups. However, the majority of studies considered gender or age as covariates in statistical analysis, and a few studies focused on only gender difference [14][15][16][17][18][19], or only age-group difference [20], or specific gender or specific age group [21][22][23]. There is no published study that has revealed gender and age group differences in the association between perceived NE and daily walking time (WT) or habitual exercise (HE) simultaneously in a population.…”

Do Relationships Between Environmental Attributes and Recreational Walking Vary According to Area-Level Socioeconomic Status?

“…The perceptions of surroundings play an important role in people's behavior choice within possible options provided by the built environment. 10 Perceived environmental attributes such as neighborhood esthetics [11][12][13] and fear of crime 14,15 are associated with recreational physical activity. It is also known that environmental perceptions do not always match objectively measured characteristics 16,17 , and people of low SES tend to perceive their surroundings more negatively than those of high SES.…”

A transport and health geography perspective on walking and cycling

“…Focussing more on the theoretical and methodological the other presenters highlight a range of potential influences reaching beyond the built environment. As highlighted by Lindelöw there is a need to consider not just the objective but perceptions of the environment for walking (Inoue et al, 2010) and cycling (Ma et al, 2014). In addition to the built environment, social factors are likely to be important for walking and cycling behaviour and vary across space and time.…”