Walking for transportation in Hong Kong Chinese urban elders: A cross-sectional study on what destinations matter and when

Abstract

Purpose: Identifying destinations and environmental conditions that facilitate walking for transport has public health significance. We investigated relationships of within-neighborhood objectively-measured destinations and environmental attributes with transport-related walking in elders from an ultra-dense metropolis (Hong Kong). Methods: We estimated relationships of diversity and prevalence of destination categories (environmental audits of 400m buffers surrounding residential addresses) with transport-related walking in 484 Chinese-speaking elders able to walk unassisted and living in neighborhoods varying in socio-economic status and transport-related walkability. We examined the moderating effects of safety and pedestrian infrastructure-related neighborhood attributes on destination-walking associations. Results: The prevalence of public transit points and diversity of recreational destinations were positively related to overall transport-related walking. The presence of a health clinic/service and place of worship, recreational destinations diversity, and greater prevalence of non-food retails and services, food/grocery stores, and restaurants in the neighborhood were predictive of more within-neighborhood transport-related walking. Neighborhood safety-related aspects moderated the relationship of overall transport-related walking with the prevalence of public transit points. Moderating effects of safety-related attributes were observed for the relationships of within-neighborhood transport-related walking with recreational and entertainment destinations. Pedestrian-infrastructure attributes acted as moderators of associations of within-neighborhood transport-related walking with prevalence of commercial destination categories. Conclusions: The availability of both non-commercial and commercial destinations may promote within-neighborhood transportrelated walking, while recreational facilities and public transit points may facilitate overall transport-related walking. However, destination-rich areas need to also provide adequate levels of personal safety and a physically-unchallenging pedestrian network.