Socio-Economic Equity in Neighbourhood Built Environments and Physical Activity
Date
2022-09-21
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Abstract
Despite well-established health benefits, most adults in Canada do not engage in
sufficient physical activity to meet physical activity recommendations. Neighbourhood built
environment characteristics, such as pedestrian connectivity, population density, and land use
mix are consistently found to be positively associated with physical activity. However, much of
this evidence has been derived from studies with samples of adults with higher socioeconomic
status (SES). It remains unclear whether similar associations between neighbourhood built
environments and physical activity exist amongst adults with lower SES. Furthermore, there is
little evidence regarding the extent to which access to physical activity-supportive
neighbourhood built environments is equitable across SES groups. The three studies presented in
this thesis address these knowledge gaps. The aim of this research was to increase understanding
about socioeconomic equity in the associations between neighbourhood built environments and
physical activity. The first study involved a systematic review of Canadian research and found
that neighbourhood built environment characteristics, such as greenness, density of destinations,
and overall walkability were positively associated with physical activity among adults with low
SES. The second study included cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of Alberta’s
Tomorrow Project data and found that associations between neighbourhood built environments
and walking were similar across SES groups. The third study included a cross-sectional analysis
of national data from the Canadian Active Living Index and the Canadian Census and found that
associations between neighbourhood walkability and home values were conditional on city size
and the proportion of detached homes within the neighbourhood. For small and medium sized
cities, neighbourhood-level home values tended to be approximately the same (or less expensive)
across neighbourhood walkability levels. Within larger cities, however, home values were higher
in neighbourhoods with higher walkability. Thus, interventions to increase the amount of
affordable housing in high walkable neighbourhoods may be needed in larger cities. Findings
from this thesis suggest that modifying existing neighbourhood built environments or building
new neighbourhoods to be more supportive of physical activity may be effective ways to
increase population-level physical activity without exacerbating socioeconomic disparities in
physical activity.
Description
Keywords
Built Environment, Physical Activity, Socio-economic Status
Citation
Christie, C. D. (2022). Socio-economic equity in neighbourhood built environments and physical activity (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.