Stepping towards causation: Do built environments or neighborhood and travel preferences explain physical activity, driving, and obesity?

Frank, Lawrence D.; Saelens, Brian E.; Powell, Ken E.; Chapman, James E.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.05.053

Cited by 559 publications

(396 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…A recent study found that owning but not walking a dog was due to a variety of reasons including the ownership of small toy breeds, another family member being responsible for walking the dog, and a perception that their dog did not provide the motivation or the social support they needed to walk . Fourth, there is evidence that, to some extent, people who enjoy walking selfselect into more walkable neighborhoods (Frank et al, 2007;Handy et al, 2006). Similarly, it may be that dog owners who want or need to walk their dog would choose to live in a more walkable neighborhood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neighborhood walkability has been consistently related to active transportation and overall physical activity (Frank et al, 2007), but its relationship to dog walking is unclear. The only published study (in abstract form only) that was found by Bauman, Sugiyama, and Owen, (2007) reported that among Australian adults there was an interaction of neighborhood walkability and socioeconomic status (SES) such that those least likely to walk their dogs lived in the poorest and least walkable neighborhoods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Physical activity, weight status, and neighborhood characteristics of dog walkers

Coleman¹,

Rosenberg

Conway

et al. 2008

Preventive Medicine

Self Cite

143

127

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Objective-This study examined how demographics, physical activity, weight status, and neighborhood characteristics varied among households with and without dogs.Method-Participants aged 20 to 65 years (N = 2199, 52% male, 75% white, Mean age = 45) were recruited from 32 neighborhoods in the Seattle, WA and Baltimore, MD regions during 2002 -2005. Dog ownership, dog walking, education, height, weight, and family income were self-reported. Minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured objectively by 7-day accelerometry.Results-Dog walking was associated with a higher proportion of participants who met national recommendations for MVPA (53%) when compared to those who had but did not walk their dog (33%) and to non-dog owners (46%). There were significantly fewer obese dog walkers (17%) when compared to both owners who did not walk their dogs (28%) and non-owners (22%). Dog owners who walked their dogs were more likely to live in high-walkable neighborhoods when compared to dog owners who did not walk their dogs.Conclusion-Dog walking may promote physical activity and contribute to weight control. Dog walking appears to be a mechanism by which residents of high-walkable neighborhoods obtain their physical activity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical activity, weight status, and neighborhood characteristics of dog walkers

Coleman¹,

Rosenberg

Conway

et al. 2008

Preventive Medicine

Self Cite

143

127

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show abstract

“…24 These characteristics are more likely to promote walkability and physical activity. 7,10,14,36 Further, people living in sprawling suburbs are more likely to drive their car 7,37 and more likely to have a higher BMI. 38 Not all aspects of high urban sprawl, however, may be detrimental to health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Urban Sprawl on Overweight, Obesity, and Physical Activity in Sydney, Australia

Garden

Jalaludin

2008

J Urban Health

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Obesity and inadequate physical activity are major risk factors for many diseases. The built environment plays an important role in influencing participation in physical activity. We aimed to determine whether urban sprawl in Sydney, Australia is associated with overweight/obesity and levels of physical activity. We used a crosssectional multilevel study design to relate urban sprawl (based on population density) measured at an area level to overweight/obesity and levels of physical activity measured at an individual level whilst controlling for individual and area level covariates in metropolitan Sydney. Individual level data were obtained from the 2002 and 2003 New South Wales Population Health Survey. We had information on 7,290 respondents. The mean population density was 2,168 persons per square kilometer (standard deviation= 1,741, range=218-7,045). After controlling for individual and area level covariates, for an inter-quartile increase in sprawl, the odds of being overweight was 1.26 (95% CI= 1.10-1.44), the odds of being obese was 1.47 (95% CI=1.24-1.75), the odds of inadequate physical activity was 1.38 (95% CI=1.21-1.57), and the odds of not spending any time walking during the past week was 1.58 (95% CI=1.28-1.93). Living in more sprawling suburbs increases the risk of overweight/obesity and inadequate physical activity despite the relatively low levels of urban sprawl in metropolitan Sydney. Modifications to the urban environment to increase physical activity may be worthwhile.

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“…On the other hand, dissonance between form and preference of neighborhood encourages the use of private means of transport. People who spontaneously choose suburban, car-dependent neighborhoods stay true to their beliefs and use the car (Schwanen and Mokhtarian 2005), while people who choose and live in walkable neighborhoods tend to drive less and walk even more than necessary (Frank et al 2007). Disadvantaged neighborhoods with good levels of connectivity and access to public transport were found to encourage walking habits for movement, with benefits in terms of offsetting other inequalities and chronic diseases, which has many implications for practice and policymaking (Turrell et al 2013).…”

Section: Interpersonal Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Design and Quality of Life

Rómice

Thwaites

Porta

et al. 2016

Handbook of Environmental Psychology and Quality of Life Research

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This chapter deals with those aspects of the design of cities that have been shown to affect quality of life. Whilst direct causal relationships between physical space and well-being are often difficult to establish, physical space certainly does play a significant part in shaping the way we engage with it, informing the individual and collective sense of attachment to our own environment; this will become increasingly important, with the urbanization process predicted to grow, a significant part of which in conditions of informality. The aim of this chapter is to gather relevant and recent research that highlights advances in the study of the reciprocal effect between urban form and urban life and use this to compile an agenda for future thinking, research and practice in the field of socially sustainable urban design.The thrust of this agenda is centered on the concept of control. Since urbanization is an ongoing phenomenon and life in cities is now the norm for the vast majority of people, the traditional role of design needs to be reconsidered to give way to more collaborative and flexible forms of conceptualization, creation, occupation and management of space. This is important in order to relieve pressure on land and institutions, and instill an overall proactive and reciprocal attitude towards space itself, and space as a form of collective and social life.The chapter will highlight that urban quality of life rests on four core themes of: material well-being; emotional and personal development; interpersonal relationships; and physical well-being. These themes provide an organizational framework for exploration of how they are manifest at the metropolitan, neighbourhood and pedestrian levels of scale. KeywordsCities, urban form, control, urban design, quality of life, metropolitan scale, neighbourhood scale, pedestrian scale. Email author OutlineFrom an overview on recent trends in urbanization, we will introduce the notion of control as a key to read the following text and in particular we will: 1. contextualize the concept of control in relation to the fields of both quality of life (QoL) and urban form. In fact, the literature in both domains shows that there is a mutually reciprocal relationship between aspects of quality of life and urban spatial structure; 2. review established and recent research on the relationships between QoL and urban form, structured around metropolitan, neighborhood and pedestrian scales, which illustrates the centrality of control in shaping our cities and allowing quality of life to be fulfilled within them; 3. propose a conceptual framework for socio-spatial urban design, which is sensitive to the relative importance of predictive/structural and loose/flexible urban elements in the production and management of urban space, and their critical role in affording their users a sense of control; 4. suggest the need for a reconceptualization of city form away from an assemblage of material and spatial elements towards a more integrated sense of a city as a mutually d...

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Stepping towards causation: Do built environments or neighborhood and travel preferences explain physical activity, driving, and obesity?

Cited by 559 publications

References 27 publications

Physical activity, weight status, and neighborhood characteristics of dog walkers

Physical activity, weight status, and neighborhood characteristics of dog walkers

Impact of Urban Sprawl on Overweight, Obesity, and Physical Activity in Sydney, Australia

Urban Design and Quality of Life

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