Journal article

How do neighbourhood definitions influence the associations between built environment and physical activity?

S Mavoa, N Bagheri, MJ Koohsari, AT Kaczynski, KE Lamb, K Oka, D O’sullivan, K Witten

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | MDPI | Published : 2019

Abstract

Researchers investigating relationships between the neighbourhood environment and health first need to decide on the spatial extent of the neighbourhood they are interested in. This decision is an important and ongoing methodological challenge since different methods of defining and delineating neighbourhood boundaries can produce different results. This paper explores this issue in the context of a New Zealand-based study of the relationship between the built environment and multiple measures of physical activity. Geographic information systems were used to measure three built environment attributes—dwelling density, street connectivity, and neighbourhood destination accessibility—using sev..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

The Understanding Relationships Between Neighbourhoods and Physical Activity (URBAN) study was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (grant: 07/356). The authors thank the URBAN study team, the participants who completed the study, the research assistants who collected the data and the territorial authorities for providing the GIS datasets. S.M. is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship (#1121035). M.J.K. was supported by a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Japan (#17716) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. K.O. is supported by the MEXT-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2015-2019 the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (S1511017).