Neighborhood environments and physical activity among adults

People who live in city neighborhoods close to stores, transit stops, sidewalks, bicycle and low-cost recreational facilities are twice as likely to get enough exercise as people who have no access to these amenities - and this holds true worldwide.

A new study, appearing in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows that access to sidewalks is the most important factor for physical activity, possibly because people use them for recreation like jogging and in-line skating as well as for transportation.

Compared to neighborhoods with no activity-friendly amenities or those designed for cars, people had a 15 percent to 50 percent higher chance of getting enough exercise if they had access to one amenity. The rate rose steadily with each amenity and reached 100 percent when all six were available.

Researchers looked at data from 11,541 survey participants in 11 countries, which included the United States Lithuania, Brazil, Sweden and Japan. They considered it enough exercise if individuals reported doing moderate-to-vigorous activity at least five days a week for at least 30 minutes each day.

"Our study had a great deal of variation in neighborhoods," said lead author James Sallis, Ph.D., a professor at the San Diego State University. "We found that amenities were strongly related to exercise levels, even in this group of culturally very diverse countries."

Sallis suggested that incorporating sidewalks into existing neighborhoods would be a practical and relatively inexpensive way of encouraging people to exercise, but a substantial change would require several amenities. He said that designing neighborhoods to support a cluster of physical activities should be a public health priority around the world.

Bess Marcus, Ph.D., a professor at Brown University, said that the study is both unique and significant. "Specific characteristics of the built environment are consistently and strongly associated with increased physical activity in several countries," said Marcus, who has no affiliation with the study. "These findings support environmental changes at the policy level that can have a large and perhaps sustained impact on physical activity and health."

American Journal of Preventive Medicine: Contact the editorial office at (858) 534-9340 or [email protected].

Sallis JF, et al. Neighborhood environments and physical activity among adults in 11 countries. Am J Prev Med 36(6), 2009.