Walk Score, Transportation Mode Choice, and Walking Among French Adults: A GPS, Accelerometer, and Mobility Survey Study

Associations Between the Built Environment in GPS-Derived Activity Spaces and Sedentary Behavior, Light Physical Activity, and Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity

Built environment and physical activity (PA) studies have predominantly used fixed or home-centric approaches to identify environmental exposures. In this study, GPS-derived daily activity spaces were used to examine the relationships between the built environment and sedentary behavior (SB), light PA (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Thirty-one adults were assessed with activity monitors and GPS units. Three types of activity spaces were created: 50 m buffered GPS tracks, minimum convex hulls (MCHs), and standard deviational ellipses (SDEs). The environmental variables included land use mix, greenness, and intersection, multi-use trail, bike infrastructure, and bike station densities. Repeated measures regression was used to test the associations for 141 person-days, controlling for age, gender, income, body mass index, crime, precipitation, and temperature. Greenness within MCH activity spaces was positively associated with LPA (p = 0.02). The bike infrastructure density within SDE spaces had a significant positive association with MVPA (p = 0.04). Multi-use trail, bike infrastructure, and bike station densities had significant negative associations with LPA (p ≤ 0.05). There were no significant adjusted associations with SB. The few significant associations in this study varied by outcome and type of activity space. Further studies are needed to determine optimal, yet flexible methods for activity spaces in built environment and PA research.

The relationships between the campus built environment and walking activity

Despite the gradual development of students' sedentary habits and associated health problems, only a few studies have extensively and systematically measured campus built environments (CBE) and their impact on street walking activity. This study explores the association between CBEs and pedestrian volume (PV). Comprehensive questionnaires, field audits, and GIS were used to measure the CBE variables and PV of 892 street segments on eight Chinese campuses in Tianjin. We used negative binomial regression models without spatial autocorrelations to investigate the relationship between the CBEs and PV. The findings indicated that campus Walk Score, facility and residential land ratio, campus design qualities, sidewalk conditions, street amenities, and other streetscape features were positively associated with PV. This study presents implications for campus research and planning practices in designing a pedestrian-friendly, sustainable, and healthy campus.

Systematic review of best practices for GPS data usage, processing, and linkage in health, exposure science and environmental context research

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is increasingly used in health research to capture individual mobility and contextual and environmental exposures. However, the tools, techniques and decisions for using GPS data vary from study to study, making comparisons and reproducibility challenging.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this systematic review were to (1) identify best practices for GPS data collection and processing; (2) quantify reporting of best practices in published studies; and (3) discuss examples found in reviewed manuscripts that future researchers may employ for reporting GPS data usage, processing and linkage of GPS data in health studies.

DESIGN

A systematic review.

DATA SOURCES

Electronic databases searched (24 October 2023) were PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022322166).

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Included peer-reviewed studies published in English met at least one of the criteria: (1) protocols involving GPS for exposure/context and human health research purposes and containing empirical data; (2) linkage of GPS data to other data intended for research on contextual influences on health; (3) associations between GPS-measured mobility or exposures and health; (4) derived variable methods using GPS data in health research; or (5) comparison of GPS tracking with other methods (eg, travel diary).

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

We examined 157 manuscripts for reporting of best practices including wear time, sampling frequency, data validity, noise/signal loss and data linkage to assess risk of bias.

RESULTS

We found that 6% of the studies did not disclose the GPS device model used, only 12.1% reported the per cent of GPS data lost by signal loss, only 15.7% reported the per cent of GPS data considered to be noise and only 68.2% reported the inclusion criteria for their data.

CONCLUSIONS

Our recommendations for reporting on GPS usage, processing and linkage may be transferrable to other geospatial devices, with the hope of promoting transparency and reproducibility in this research.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42022322166.

Sedentary Activities and Food Intake among Children and Adolescents in the Zhejiang Province of China: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

Sedentary behavior may affect the types of food consumed in children and adolescents' daily diets. Previous published studies are limited to local surveys. This study aimed to explore the relationship between sedentary behavior and food intake among children and adolescents.

METHODS

A stratified sampling technique was employed in the present cross-sectional study. Demographic characteristics, sedentary behavior, transportation modes, and food intake were investigated.

RESULTS

We found that children and adolescents who watched movies or TV programs online or on their smartphones on weekends and who chatted online on weekends, including on QQ (an instant messaging software service) and WeChat (an instant messaging software service), increased their intake of instant noodles and fried pasta (Spearman's rho = 0.468, 0.575, 0.465, and 0.323; p < 0.05). Children and adolescents who chatted online on weekends, including on QQ and WeChat, increased their intake of tofu skin (Spearman's rho = 0.461; p < 0.05), and those who browsed online on weekdays increased their intake of whole-fat liquid milk (Spearman's rho = 0.455; p < 0.05). Children and adolescents who browsed and chatted online on weekends, including on QQ and WeChat, and who played computer or smartphone games, increased their intake of fried potato chips (French fries or other fried snacks) (Spearman's rho = 0.568, 0.270, and 0.412; p < 0.05). With respect to modes of transportation used to travel to and from school, children and adolescents who took buses and subways increased their intake of rice, instant noodles, sweet potatoes, soybean milk, tofu skin, processed meat products (sausage, ham sausage, or lunch meat), fish, shrimp, vegetables, nuts, and sweet cookies (buns, cakes, Dim sum, and moon cakes) (Spearman's rho = 0.394, 0.536, 0.630, 0.408, 0.485, 0.441,0.410, 0.424, 0.444, 0.541, and 0.366; p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Sedentary behavior affects the types of food consumed in children and adolescents' daily diets. Children and adolescents who browsed online on weekdays increased their intake of whole-fat liquid milk, but also increased their intake of foods with high fat, high salt, and low nutrient density. Children and adolescents taking buses and subways increased their intake of low-nutrition quality products. Public awareness efforts should focus on reducing the consumption of low-nutrition quality products and nutritional education.

How different are objective operationalizations of walkability for older adults compared to the general population? A systematic review

Background

Walking is an essential activity for everyone and for older adults in particular, given that it is the most accessible form of physical activity and one of the healthiest transportation modes. Understanding how walkability (the potential of the environment to enable and/or encourage walking) has been objectively measured and analyzed for older adults is critical to create more inclusive, healthy, and sustainable environments and to promote healthy aging. Despite the numerous reviews on physical activity among older adults and its relationship with the built environment, the literature still lacks comparison reviews focusing specifically on objective operationalizations of walkability for older adults vs. the general population.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of 146 empirical studies that measured walkability objectively in relation to walking-related outcomes. We compared studies focused on older adults (n = 24) and the general population (n = 122). Content analysis included the characteristics of the study design, walkability measures, spatial extent, and associations found between walkability and walking-related outcomes.

Results

In both groups of publications, the majority of studies were conducted in the US, Canada, and Europe, and largely in high-income countries. They were mostly published in health-related journals and used cross-sectional designs, operationalized walkability by using indexes, employed self-reported measures for walking-related outcomes, and found positive associations between walkability and walking outcomes. However, we observed some differences among studies focusing on older adults. Compared to studies focusing on the general population, a larger proportion of studies on older adults was conducted in the Middle East and Asia, and they used longitudinal designs, mixed methods to measure walking-related outcomes, variables related with land-use characteristics, safety from traffic and crime, and greenery, and a larger proportion found positive, as well as no associations between walkability and walking-related outcomes.

Conclusion

Although there is a promising increase in interest in older adults-focused walkability studies in the last decade, there is still a need for more studies focusing on different settings, using wider spatial extents, longitudinal designs, objective or mixed methods to collect outcome data, and specific variables and/or specially created indexes for older adults and for settings.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03233-x.

Using combined Global Position System and accelerometer data points to examine how built environments and gentrification are associated with physical activity in four Canadian cities

BACKGROUND

Built and social environments are associated with physical activity. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and accelerometer data can capture how people move through their environments and provide promising tools to better understand associations between environmental characteristics and physical activity. The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between GPS-derived exposure to built environment and gentrification characteristics and accelerometer-measured physical activity in a sample of adults across four cities.

METHODS

We used wave 1 data from the Interventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team, a cohort of adults living in the Canadian cities of Victoria, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Montreal. A subsample of participants wore a SenseDoc device for 10 days during May 2017-January 2019 to record GPS and accelerometry data. Two physical activity outcomes were derived from SenseDoc data: time spent in light, moderate, and vigorous physical activity; and time spent in moderate or vigorous physical activity. Using corresponding GPS coordinates, we summarized physical activity outcomes by dissemination area-a Canadian census geography that represents areas where 400 to 700 people live- and joined to built (active living space, proximity to amenities, and urban compactness) and gentrification measures. We examined the associations between environmental measures and physical activity outcomes using multi-level negative binomial regression models that were stratified by city and adjusted for covariates (weekday/weekend), home dissemination area, precipitation, temperature) and participant-level characteristics obtained from a survey (age, gender, income, race).

RESULTS

We found that adults spent more time being physically active near their homes, and in environments that were more walkable and near parks and less time in urban compact areas, regardless of where participants lived. Our analysis also highlighted how proximity to different amenities was linked to physical activity across different cities.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provides insights into how built environment and gentrification characteristics are associated with the amount of time adults spend being physically active in four Canadian cities. These findings enhance our understanding of the influence that environments have on physical activity over time and space, and can support policies to increase physical activity.

GPS-based activity space exposure to greenness and walkability is associated with increased accelerometer-based physical activity

INTRODUCTION

Built and natural environments may provide opportunities for physical activity. However, studies are limited by primarily using residential addresses to define exposure and self-report to measure physical activity. We quantified associations between global positioning systems (GPS)-based activity space measures of environmental exposure and accelerometer-based physical activity.

METHODS

Using a nationwide sample of working female adults (N = 354), we obtained seven days of GPS and accelerometry data. We created Daily Path Area activity spaces using GPS data and linked these activity spaces to spatial datasets on walkability (EPA Smart Location Database at the Census block group level) and greenness (satellite vegetation at 250 m resolution). We utilized generalized additive models to examine nonlinear associations between activity space exposures and accelerometer-derived physical activity outcomes adjusted for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and self-rated health.

RESULTS

Higher activity space walkability was associated with higher levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity, and higher activity space greenness was associated with greater numbers of steps per week. No strong relationships were observed for sedentary behavior or light physical activity. Highest levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity were observed for participants with both high walkability and high greenness in their activity spaces.

CONCLUSION

This study contributes evidence that higher levels of physical activity occur in environments with more dense, diverse, and well-connected built environments, and with higher amounts of vegetation. These data suggest that urban planners, landscape architects, and policy makers should implement and evaluate environmental interventions to encourage higher levels of physical activity.

Walkability measures to predict the likelihood of walking in a place: A classification and regression tree analysis

Walkability is a popular and ubiquitous term at the intersection of urban planning and public health. As the number of potential walkability measures grows in the literature, there is a need to compare their relative importance for specific research objectives. This study demonstrates a classification and regression tree (CART) model to compare five familiar measures of walkability from the literature for their relative ability to predict whether or not walking occurs in a dataset of objectively measured locations. When analyzed together, the measures had moderate-to-high accuracy (87.8% agreement: 65.6% of true walking GPS-measured points classified as walking and 93.4% of non-walking points as non-walking). On its own, the most well-known composite measure, Walk Score, performed only slightly better than measures of the built environment composed of a single variable (transit ridership, employment density, and residential density).Thus there may be contexts where transparent and longitudinally available measures of urban form are worth a marginal tradeoff in prediction accuracy. This comparison of walkability measures using CART highlights the importance for public health and urban design researchers to think carefully about how and why particular walkability measures are used.

Social and Economic Differences in Neighborhood Walkability Across 500 U.S. Cities

INTRODUCTION

Neighborhood walkability has been established as a potentially important determinant of various health outcomes that are distributed inequitably by race/ethnicity and sociodemographic status. The objective of this study is to assess the differences in walkability across major urban centers in the U.S.

METHODS

City- and census tract-level differences in walkability were assessed in 2020 using the 2019 Walk Score across 500 large cities in the U.S.

RESULTS

At both geographic levels, high-income and majority White geographic units had the lowest walkability overall. Walkability was lower with increasing tertile of median income among majority White, Latinx, and Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander neighborhoods. However, this association was reversed within majority Black neighborhoods, where tracts in lower-income tertiles had the lowest walkability. Associations varied substantially by region, with the strongest differences observed for cities located in the South.

CONCLUSIONS

Differences in neighborhood walkability across 500 U.S. cities provide evidence that both geographic unit and region meaningfully influence associations between sociodemographic factors and walkability. Structural interventions to the built environment may improve equity in urban environments, particularly in lower-income majority Black neighborhoods.

GPS-based built environment measures associated with adult physical activity

Studies often rely on home locations to access built environment (BE) influences on physical activity (PA). We use GPS and accelerometer data collected for 288 individuals over a two-week period to examine eight GPS-derived BE characteristics and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and light-to-moderate-vigorous PA (LMVPA). NDVI, parks, blue space, pedestrian-orientated intersections, and population density were associated with increased odds of LMVPA and MVPA, while traffic air pollution and noise were associated with decreased odds of LMVPA and MVPA. Associations varied by population density and when accounting for multiple BE measures. These findings provide further information on where individuals choose to be physically active.

Beyond Physical Capacity: Factors Associated With Real-world Walking Activity After Stroke

OBJECTIVE

To identify homogeneous subsets of survivors of chronic stroke who share similar characteristics across several domains and test if these groups differ in real-world walking activity. We hypothesized that variables representing the domains of walking ability, psychosocial, environment, and cognition would be important contributors in differentiating real-world walking activity in survivors of chronic stroke.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional, secondary data analysis.

SETTING

University/laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 283 individuals with chronic (≥6mo) stroke (N=238).

INTERVENTIONS

Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Thirteen variables representing 5 domains were included: (1) walking ability: 6-minute walk test (6MWT), self-selected speed (SSS) of gait; (2) psychosocial: Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale; (3) physical health: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI); (4) cognition: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA); and (5) environment: living situation and marital status, work status, Area Deprivation Index (ADI), Walk Score. Mixture modeling was used to identify latent classes of survivors of stroke. After identifying the latent classes, walking activity, measured as steps per day (SPD), was included as a distal outcome to understand if classes were meaningfully different in their real-world walking RESULTS: A model with 3 latent classes was selected. The 6MWT, SSS, ABC scale, and Walk Score were significantly different among all 3 classes. Differences were also seen for the MoCA, ADI, and CCI between 2 of the 3 classes. Importantly, the distal outcome of SPD was significantly different in all classes, indicating that real-world walking activity differs among the groups identified by the mixture model.

CONCLUSIONS

Survivors of stroke with lower walking ability, lower self-efficacy, lower cognitive abilities, and greater area deprivation had lower SPD. These results demonstrate that the physical and social environment (including socioeconomic factors) and cognitive function should also be considered when developing interventions to improve real-world walking activity after stroke.

A systematic review of the evolution of GPS use in active living research: A state of the evidence for research, policy, and practice

This is the first systematic review to comprehensively capture Global Positioning Systems' (GPS) utilization in active living research by investigating the influence of physical contexts and social environment on all intensities of physical activity and sedentary behavior among all age groups. An extensive search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted using six databases. Out of 2026 articles identified, 129 studies met the inclusion criteria. After describing the evolution of GPS use across four themes (study designs and methods, physical contexts and social environment, active transportation, and behaviors), evidence-based recommendations for active living research, policy, and practice were generated.

Social and physical environmental factors in daily stepping activity in those with chronic stroke

BACKGROUND, PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE

Walking behavior in the chronic stroke population is multi-factorial. Previous work focused on the role of physical and biopsychosocial factors in understanding daily stepping post stroke. However, qualitative evidence suggests that social and physical environmental factors also affect daily stepping in those with stroke. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of social and physical environmental factors in daily stepping after stroke.

METHODS

A total of 249 individuals ≥6 months post stroke were included in this cross-sectional analysis (129 females, mean age 62.98 years, SD 11.94). The social environment included living situation, work status, and marital status. The physical environment included the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and Walk Score. At least 3 days of stepping was collected using an accelerometry-based device. Predictors were entered sequentially into a regression model: demographic characteristics, social environmental factors, and physical environmental factors.

RESULTS

After adjusting for demographic factors, social environmental factors explained 6.2% (p =.017) of the variance in post stroke daily stepping. The addition of physical environmental factors improved the model (ΔR² =.029, p =.024). The final model explained 9.2% (p =.003) of the variance in daily stepping. Lower area deprivation (ADI β = -0.178, p =.015) and working (working vs. retired β = -0.187, p = .029 and working vs. unemployed β = -0.227, p =.008) were associated with greater daily stepping.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION

Social and physical environmental factors predicted daily stepping and should be considered when setting expectations relative to the effects of rehabilitation on daily stepping in individuals poststroke.

Walkability and Fitness Center Prices, Opening Hours, and Extra Services: The Case of Madrid, Spain

Walkability has been associated with urban development and political plans, contributing to more connected cities with improvements in communication, shopping, and pedestrian base. Among these services, fitness centers are becoming important elements for communities due to their impact on the health and welfare of citizens. The present study aims to examine how an area’s Walk Score^® affects fitness center services, specifically membership costs, opening hours, and aquatic services. Data from 193 fitness centers were retrieved, representing all the areas of the municipality of Madrid, Spain, including fitness centers in the 21 city districts. A nonlinear relationship between an area’s Walk Score^® and fitness centers’ monthly fees is observed. Only in premium fitness centers, a weak curvilinear model is observed, following a quadratic equation, showing that fitness centers with higher prices are in less walkable areas. Additionally, the association between Walk Score^® and a fitness center’s opening hours reveals that fitness centers with wider hours of operation tend to be in moderately to highly walkable locations. Lastly, the existence of a swimming pool is related to a lower Walk Score^®. Thus, fitness centers in less walkable areas try to offer additional services as differentiation from competitors, whereas centers in walkable locations use this advantage as a strength.

Analyzing Associations Between Chronic Disease Prevalence and Neighborhood Quality Through Google Street View Images

Deep learning and, specifically, convoltional neural networks (CNN) represent a class of powerful models that facilitate the understanding of many problems in computer vision. When combined with a reasonable amount of data, CNNs can outperform traditional models for many tasks, including image classification. In this work, we utilize these powerful tools with imagery data collected through Google Street View images to perform virtual audits of neighborhood characteristics. We further investigate different architectures for chronic disease prevalence regression through networks that are applied to sets of images rather than single images. We show quantitative results and demonstrate that our proposed architectures outperform the traditional regression approaches.

Using global positioning system methods to explore mobility patterns and exposure to high HIV prevalence neighbourhoods among transgender women in New York

The aim of this study was to assess mobility patterns among a sample of transgender women (n=14) in New York City via survey and Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring. We found varying levels of concordance between the residential neighbourhood and each of the non-residential contexts: 64.3% considered the neighbourhood that they socialised in most often to be different from their residential neighbourhood. While participants' residences represented 10 zone improvement plan code tabulation areas (ZCTAs), GPS data were recorded in 124 of 263 ZCTAs (47.1%). Overall, 58.2% (n=373,262) were recorded in ZCTAs in the highest quartile of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence. The association between place, community HIV prevalence, mobility, and factors that increase the vulnerability of transgender women to HIV infection are worthy of future investigation in reducing the burden of the HIV epidemic in these communities.

Methodologies for assessing contextual exposure to the built environment in physical activity studies: A systematic review

Growing research has integrated Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and accelerometry in studying effects of built environment on physical activity outcomes. This systematic review aimed to summarize current geospatial methods of assessing contextual exposure to the built environment in these studies. Based on reviewing 79 eligible articles, methods were identified and grouped into three main categories based on similarities in their approaches as follows: domain-based (67% of studies), buffer-based (22%), and activity space-based (11%). Additionally, technical barriers and potential sources of uncertainties in each category were discussed and recommendations on methodological improvements were made.

Activity spaces in studies of the environment and physical activity: A review and synthesis of implications for causality

Activity spaces are increasingly used to understand how people interact with their environment and engage in activity but their use may raise challenges regarding causal inference. We conducted a systematic review of findings and the methodological, analytical and conceptual issues relevant to causal inference. Studies were included if they comprised a spatial summary of locations visited, assessed any part of the causal pathway between the environment, physical activity and health, and used quantitative or qualitative methods. We searched seven electronic databases in January 2018 and screened 11910 articles for eligibility. Forty-seven studies were included for review. Studies answered research questions about features of or environmental features within activity spaces using a range of spatial and temporal summary techniques. The conceptual challenge of using activity spaces to strengthen causal inference was rarely considered, although some studies discussed circularity, temporality, and plausibility. Future studies should use longitudinal and experimental designs and consider the potential and actual use of spaces for physical activity, and their relationship with total levels of activity.

Test-Retest Reliability and Walk Score® Neighbourhood Walkability Comparison of an Online Perceived Neighbourhood-Specific Adaptation of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)

There is a growing public health interest in the contributions of the built environment in enabling and supporting physical activity. However, few tools measuring neighbourhood-specific physical activity exist. This study assessed the reliability of an established physical activity tool (International Physical Activity Questionnaire: IPAQ) adapted to capture perceived neighbourhood-specific physical activity (N-IPAQ) administered via the internet and compared N-IPAQ outcomes to differences in neighbourhood Walk Score^®. A sample of n = 261 adults completed an online questionnaire on two occasions at least seven days apart. Questionnaire items captured walking, cycling, moderate-intensity, and vigorous-intensity physical activity, undertaken inside the participant's perceived neighbourhood in the past week. Intraclass correlations, Spearman's rank correlation, and Cohen's Kappa coefficients estimated item test-retest reliability. Regression estimated the associations between self-reported perceived neighbourhood-specific physical activity and Walk Score^®. With the exception of moderate physical activity duration, participation and duration for all physical activities demonstrated moderate reliability. Transportation walking participation and duration was higher (p < 0.05) in more walkable neighbourhoods. The N-IPAQ administered online found differences in neighbourhoods that vary in their walkability. Future studies investigating built environments and self-reported physical activity may consider using the online version of the N-IPAQ.

Walk Score and objectively measured physical activity within a national cohort

Background

There have been mixed findings regarding the relationship between walkability and level of physical activity in adults.

Methods

Participants from The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national cohort (N=7561) were used to examine the association between Walk Score and physical activity measured via accelerometry. The subsample included geographically diverse adults, who identified as black or white, and were over the age of 45. Linear regression was used to examine the direct effects, as well as the interaction, of Walk Score by sex, age and race.

Results

The majority of participants lived in a ‘Very Car-Dependent’ location (N=4115). Only 527 lived in a location that was ‘Very Walkable/Walker’s Paradise’. Living in a location with a Walk Score of ‘Very Car-Dependent’ compared with ‘Very Walkable/Walker’s Paradise’ was associated with 19% (0.81; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.90) lower predicted minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, after adjustment for covariates. There was no evidence of statistically significant interactions between Walk Score and sex, age or race (p>0.05).

Conclusion

Accumulated daily time in moderate to vigorous physical activity was higher for participants living in neighbourhoods designated as ‘Very Walkable/Walker’s Paradise’. This effect was not moderated by sex, age or race of participants.

Associations between Walk Score and objective measures of physical activity in urban overweight and obese women

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between the Walk Score and physical activity in young, overweight/obese urban women. Project Health included 45 White or African American women (BMI 31.5±3.9 kg/m²; age 26.5±4.6 years; 62% African American) living in the Boston area. An accelerometer estimated steps/day and mins/day in light physical activity (100–2019 counts-per-minute) and moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity (≥2020 cpm). Walk Score was used to estimate the walkability of home address by analyzing proximity to nearby amenities. General linear regression models estimated associations between total Walk Score and physical activity (light physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity, steps, total activity counts, METs), adjusting for body mass index, age, race/ethnicity, seasonality, wear time, employment and student status. For physical activity variables that had significant associations with Walk Score (steps/day and steps/min), regression models were estimated for Walk Score sub-scores (parks, grocery, errands, shopping, dining/drinking, culture/entertainment and schools). Logistic regression models estimated the odds of meeting the guidelines for steps (≥10,000/day) and moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity (≥150mins MVPA/week) based on Walk Score. Participants had a Walk Score of 63.9±26.4, took 14,143±3,934 steps/day, and spent 206.2±66.0 mins/day in light physical activity and 46.7±17.5 mins/day in moderate-to-vigorous- physical activity. Walk Score was significantly and positively associated with steps/day (β = 51.4, p = 0.01) and steps/min (β = 0.06, p = 0.009) but was not associated with mins/day of light physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity, total activity counts or METs. Parks, grocery, errands, shopping, dining/drinking, and culture/entertainment Walk Score sub-scores were significantly associated with steps and steps/min (all p<0.05), but not significantly associated for schools. Participants who lived in higher Walk Score neighborhoods were more likely to meet the step guidelines (OR, 95% CI: 1.59, 1.04–2.99) and moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity guidelines (1.63, 1.06–3.02), respectively, per 10-unit increase in Walk Score. These results indicate that living in a more walkable neighborhood may support walking behavior in young, urban-dwelling overweight/obese women and provide further evidence for the expanded use of urban planning and transportation policies to improve the walkability of urban neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Walkability and Housing Affordability among U.S. Urban Areas

With support and demand for walkable urban spaces on the rise, there has been growing concern among academics and practitioners of increasing exclusivity, particularly in amenity-rich areas. This study examines equity in neighborhood walkability from the perspective of housing affordability, asking whether more walkable urban neighborhoods have less affordable housing from the viewpoint of both neighborhood residents and households within the encompassing metropolitan region. While considering additional factors that may affect housing affordability, including coastal proximity, crime, rail access, housing age, housing size, and employment accessibility, the results indicate lower housing affordability primarily for renter households already living in walkable neighborhoods, but not for those looking to move to a more walkable neighborhood from within the same metropolitan area. Case studies of three large U.S. urban areas, Charlotte, NC, Pittsburgh, PA, and Portland, OR, highlight local variations in the walkability–housing affordability nexus.

Towards an Integrated Science of Movement: Converging Research on Animal Movement Ecology and Human Mobility Science

There is long-standing scientific interest in understanding purposeful movement by animals and humans. Traditionally, collecting data on individual moving entities was difficult and time-consuming, limiting scientific progress. The growth of location-aware and other geospatial technologies for capturing, managing and analyzing moving objects data are shattering these limitations, leading to revolutions in animal movement ecology and human mobility science. Despite parallel transitions towards massive individual-level data collected automatically via sensors, there is little scientific cross-fertilization across the animal and human divide. There are potential synergies from converging these separate domains towards an integrated science of movement. This paper discusses the data-driven revolutions in the animal movement ecology and human mobility science, their contrasting worldviews and, as examples of complementarity, transdisciplinary questions that span both fields. We also identify research challenges that should be met to develop an integrated science of movement trajectories.

Quantification of Free-Living Community Mobility in Healthy Older Adults Using Wearable Sensors

Introduction: Understanding determinants of community mobility disability is critical for developing interventions aimed at preventing or delaying disability in older adults. In an effort to understand these determinants, capturing and measuring community mobility has become a key factor. The objectives of this paper are to present and illustrate the signal processing workflow and outcomes that can be extracted from an activity and community mobility measurement approach based on GPS and accelerometer sensor data and 2) to explore the construct validity of the proposed measurement approach using data collected from healthy older adults in free-living conditions. Methods: Personal, functional impairment and environmental variables were obtained by self-report questionnaires in 75 healthy community-living older adults (mean age = 66 ± 7 years old) living on the island of Montreal, QC, Canada. Participants wore, for 14 days during waking hours on the hip, a data logger incorporating a GPS receiver with a 3-axis accelerometer. Time at home ratio (THR), Trips out (TO), Destinations (D), Maximal distance of destinations (MDD), Active time ratio (ATR), Steps (S), Distance in a vehicle (DV), Time in a vehicle (TV), Distance on foot (DF), Time on foot (TF), Ellipse area (EA), and Ellipse maximum distance (EMD) were extracted from the recordings. Results: After applying quality control criteria, the original data set was reduced from 75 to 54 participants (28% attrition). Results from the remaining sample show that under free-living conditions in healthy older adults, location, activity and community mobility outcomes vary across individuals and certain personal variables (age, income, living situation, professional status, vehicle access) have potential mitigating effects on these outcomes. There was a significant (yet small) relationship (rho < 0.40) between self-reported life space and MDD, DV, EA, and EMD. Conclusion: Wearability and usability of the devices used to capture free-living community mobility impact participant compliance and the quality of the data. The construct validity of the proposed approach appears promising but requires further studies directed at populations with mobility impairments.

Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict Obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures: Environmental Domain

BACKGROUND

There is growing interest in how environment is related to adults' weight and activity and eating behaviors. However, little is known about whether environmental factors are related to the individual variability seen in adults' intentional weight loss or maintenance outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

The environmental domain subgroup of the Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures Project sought to identify a parsimonious set of objective and perceived neighborhood and social environment constructs and corresponding measures to include in the assessment of response to adult weight-loss treatment.

SIGNIFICANCE

Starting with the home address, the environmental domain subgroup recommended for inclusion in future weight-loss or maintenance studies constructs and measures related to walkability, perceived land use mix, food outlet accessibility (perceived and objective), perceived food availability, socioeconomics, and crime-related safety (perceived and objective) to characterize the home neighborhood environment. The subgroup also recommended constructs and measures related to social norms (perceived and objective) and perceived support to characterize an individual's social environment. The 12 neighborhood and social environment constructs and corresponding measures provide a succinct and comprehensive set to allow for more systematic examination of the impact of environment on adults' weight loss and maintenance.

Neighborhood walk score and selected Cardiometabolic factors in the French RECORD cohort study

Background

Walkable neighborhoods are purported to impact a range of cardiometabolic outcomes through increased walking, but there is limited research that examines multiple cardiometabolic outcomes. Additionally, few Walk Score (a novel measure of neighborhood walkability) studies have been conducted in a European context. We evaluated associations between neighborhood Walk Score and selected cardiometabolic outcomes, including obesity, hypertension and heart rate, among adults in the Paris metropolitan area.

Methods and results

We used data from the second wave of the RECORD Study on 5993 participants recruited in 2011–2014, aged 34–84 years, and residing in Paris (France). To this existing dataset, we added Walk Score values for participants’ residential address. We used multilevel linear models for the continuous outcomes and modified Poisson models were used for our categorical outcomes to estimate associations between the neighborhood Walk Score (both as a continuous and categorical variable) (0–100 score) and body mass index (BMI) (weight/height² in kg/m²), obesity (kg/m²), waist circumference (cm), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (mmHg), hypertension (mmHg), resting heart rate (RHR) (beats per minute), and neighborhood recreational walking (minutes per week). Most participants lived in Walker’s Paradise (48.3%). In multivariate models (adjusted for individual variables, neighborhood variables, and risk factors for cardiometabolic outcomes), we found that neighborhood Walk Score was associated with decreased BMI (β: -0.010, 95% CI: -0.019 to −0.002 per unit increase), decreased waist circumference (β: -0.031, 95% CI: -0.054 to −0.008), increased neighborhood recreational walking (β: +0.73, 95% CI: +0.37 to +1.10), decreased SBP (β: -0.030, 95% CI: -0.063 to −0.0004), decreased DBP (β: -0.028, 95% CI: -0.047 to −0.008), and decreased resting heart rate (β: -0.026 95% CI: -0.046 to −0.005).

Conclusions

In this large population-based study, we found that, even in a European context, living in a highly walkable neighborhood was associated with improved cardiometabolic health. Designing walkable neighborhoods may be a viable strategy in reducing cardiovascular disease prevalence at the population level.

GPS-Based Exposure to Greenness and Walkability and Accelerometry-Based Physical Activity

Background: Physical inactivity is a risk factor for cancer that may be influenced by environmental factors. Indeed, dense and well-connected built environments and environments with natural vegetation may create opportunities for higher routine physical activity. However, studies have focused primarily on residential environments to define exposure and self-reported methods to estimate physical activity. This study explores the momentary association between minute-level global positioning systems (GPS)-based greenness exposure and time-matched objectively measured physical activity.Methods: Adult women were recruited from sites across the United States. Participants wore a GPS device and accelerometer on the hip for 7 days to assess location and physical activity at minute-level epochs. GPS records were linked to 250 m resolution satellite-based vegetation data and Census Block Group-level U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Smart Location Database walkability data. Minute-level generalized additive mixed models were conducted to test for associations between GPS measures and accelerometer count data, accounting for repeated measures within participant and allowing for deviations from linearity using splines.Results: Among 360 adult women (mean age of 55.3 ± 10.2 years), we observed positive nonlinear relationships between physical activity and both greenness and walkability. In exploratory analyses, the relationships between environmental factors and physical activity were strongest among those who were white, had higher incomes, and who were middle-aged.Conclusions: Our results indicate that higher levels of physical activity occurred in areas with higher greenness and higher walkability.Impact: Findings suggest that planning and design policies should focus on these environments to optimize opportunities for physical activity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(4); 525-32. ©2017 AACRSee all the articles in this CEBP Focus section, "Geospatial Approaches to Cancer Control and Population Sciences."

Neighborhood perceptions and hypertension among low-income black women: a qualitative study

Background

The majority of studies examining the role of neighborhoods and hypertension-related outcomes have been quantitative in nature and very few studies have examined specific disadvantaged populations, including low-income housing residents. The objective of this study was to use qualitative interviews to explore low-income Black women’s perceptions of their neighborhoods and to understand how those perceptions may affect their health, especially as it relates to blood pressure.

Methods

Seventeen Black female participants, living in public housing communities in New York City, completed one semi-structured, audiotaped interview in July of 2014. All interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emerging themes using N’Vivo 10 software.

Results

Three major themes emerged: (1) social connectedness, (2) stress factors, and (3) availability of food options. For example, factors that caused stress varied throughout the study population. Sources of stress included family members, employment, and uncleanliness within the neighborhood. Many participants attributed their stress to personal issues, such as lack of employment and relationships. In addition, the general consensus among many participants was that there should be a greater density of healthy food options in their neighborhoods. Some believed that the pricing of fresh foods in the neighborhoods should better reflect the financial status of the residents in the community.

Conclusions

Various neighborhood influences, including neighborhood disorder and lack of healthy food options, are factors that appear to increase Black women’s risk of developing high blood pressure. Implications of this research include the need to develop interventions that promote good neighborhood infrastructure (e.g. healthy food stores to encourage good nutrition habits and well-lit walking paths to encourage daily exercise), in addition to interventions that increase hypertension awareness in low-income neighborhoods.