Associations between the Neighbourhood Built Environment and Walking
Date
2018-07-11
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Abstract
Physical inactivity is a risk factor for overweight and obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and breast/colon cancer. Despite the known benefits of physical activity, many Canadian adults do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity necessary to obtain optimal health. Evidence suggests that built characteristics within neighbourhoods are associated with physical activity, and in particular walking. There is growing policy interest in neighbourhood interventions to increase physical activity, specifically walking, suggesting the need for a synthesis of Canadian evidence to better inform local urban planning. There were two main aims of this thesis. The first was to provide a better understanding of how the built environment influences walking behaviour in Canadian adults. The second was to contribute to this body of evidence by studying the associations between individual characteristics of the neighbourhood environment and walking outcomes. A systematized review of Canadian evidence supported findings from other reviews, suggesting that overall walkability, land-use mix, and proximity to destinations are important features of the built environment for promoting transportation walking. Built environment associations with recreation walking are less clear. The systematized review also identified gaps in the current body of research, some of which were addressed in the analytic component of this thesis. A quantitative data analysis for a sample of Canadian adults living in 12 neighbourhoods of varying urban form and socioeconomic status in Calgary, Canada did not find any statistically significant associations between individual characteristics of the neighbourhood built environment and recreation walking or transportation walking, after adjusting for residential self-selection, sociodemographic characteristics, and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Further research is needed to better understand how individual characteristics of the neighbourhood built
environment facilitate or inhibit walking in order to better inform urban planning and public health policy.
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Keywords
built environment, walking, physical activity, urban planning, neighbourhood, Canada
Citation
Farkas, B. J. M. (2018). Associations between the Neighbourhood Built Environment and Walking (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32692