McCormack, GavinChristie, Chelsea Desirée2022-09-262022-09-262022-09-21Christie, 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.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/115282https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/40288Despite 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.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Built EnvironmentPhysical ActivitySocio-economic StatusEpidemiologyPublic Healthdoctoral thesis