How the walkability of a neighbourhood affects the pattern of physical activity

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The current literature has shown that physical activity can be influenced by environmental factors (1). These factors include the accessibility of commercial destinations (2), aesthetics, proximity of recreational facilities (3,4) and the walkability of the neighbourhood (5). Although the walkability of a neighbourhood is known to be an important determinant of physical activity undertaken by its residents, most of these studies have been undertaken in relatively low-density Western cities, with little data available from high-density Asian cities. Furthermore, it is unknown how the walkabiity index may influence the pattern in which people accumulate physical activity; for example, it was hypothesized that residents in high walkable neighborhoods would accumulate more activity time from very short duration trips when compared to residents of low walkable neighborhoods. As current international activity guidelines recommend that more than ten minutes of continuous physical activity is required to attain health benefits (6), it is also important to extend our knowledge to examine if the neighbourhood environment affects the duration of physical activities typically undertake by …