Journal article
The impact of neighborhood walkability on walking: Does it differ across adult life stage and does neighborhood buffer size matter?
Karen Villanueva, Matthew Knuiman, Andrea Nathan, Billie Giles-Corti, Hayley Christian, Sarah Foster, Fiona Bull
HEALTH & PLACE | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2014
Abstract
We explored the impact of neighborhood walkability on young adults, early-middle adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults' walking across different neighborhood buffers. Participants completed the Western Australian Health and Wellbeing Surveillance System Survey (2003-2009) and were allocated a neighborhood walkability score at 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m around their home. We found little difference in strength of associations across neighborhood size buffers for all life stages. We conclude that neighborhood walkability supports more walking regardless of adult life stage and is relevant for small (e.g., 200m) and larger (e.g., 1600m) neighborhood buffers.
Grants
Awarded by Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (i.e., Healthway)
Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/National Heart Foundation
Awarded by Healthway Health Promotion Research Fellowship
Awarded by NHMRC
Awarded by Healthway
Funding Acknowledgements
The Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (i.e., Healthway) provided funding (#18922). The Department of Health of Western Australia, and WA Data Linkage Branch is gratefully acknowledged for providing survey data and extracting built environment data. Ethics approval for the project was obtained from The University of Western Australian Human Research Ethics Committee and the Department of Health of Western Australia's Ethics Committee (#2010/1). Spatial data based on information provided by and with the permission of the (c) Western Australian Land Information Authority (i.e., Landgate) was used. Nick Middleton, Sharyn Hickey and Bridget Beesley are gratefully acknowledged for developing GIS scripts and processing GIS measures. HC is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/National Heart Foundation Early Career Fellowship (#1036350); SF by a Healthway Health Promotion Research Fellowship (#21363); BGC by a NHMRC Principal Research Fellow Award (#1004900).