Background: Understanding environmental correlates of sedentary behaviour (SB) among young people is important as such data can identify approaches to limit sedentary time. This paper estimates associations of parent-reported neighbourhood and adolescent-reported home environments with SB among adolescents aged 11-19 years from 14 countries.
Methods: In the International Physical activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) Adolescent Study (an observational, cross-sectional multi-country study), adolescents wore a triaxial accelerometer for seven days that assessed sedentary time (ST).
Purpose: The current study examined associations of social and built features of neighborhood environments with psychological distress 6 years later and whether these associations were explained by stress and social factors, among Hispanic/Latino adults from the HCHS/SOL and SOL CASAS Ancillary Study.
Methods: In the SOL CASAS Ancillary Study, HCHS/SOL San Diego participants' baseline (2008-2011) home addresses were geocoded, neighborhoods were defined using 800 m radial buffers, and variables representing neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, social disorder, walkability, and greenness were created. Psychological distress (anxiety and depression symptoms) and proposed pathway variables chronic stress, social support, and family cohesion were assessed at HCHS/SOL Visit 2 (2014-2017).
It is widely assumed crime and related concerns, including neighborhood incivilities and fear of crime, are barriers to physical activity (PA). Past studies reveal mixed evidence. Studies of impacts for crime-protective factors are less common but have similarly mixed results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhysical inactivity is a leading contributor to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Almost 500 million new cases of preventable noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will occur globally between 2020 and 2030 due to physical inactivity, costing just over US$300 billion, or around US$ 27 billion annually (WHO 2022). Active adults can achieve a reduction of up to 35% in risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Active commuting to school can be a meaningful contributor to overall physical activity in children. To inform better micro-level urban design near schools that can support active commuting to school, there is a need for measures that capture these elements. This paper describes the adaptation of an observational instrument for use in assessing micro-scale environments around urban elementary schools in the United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost adolescents do not meet physical activity guidelines, so understanding facilitators and barriers is important. This study used surveys and geocoded location data to examine associations of availability of parks and recreation facilities with adolescent-reported participation in organized team sports and physical activity classes. The study was conducted with 928 adolescents aged 12-17 years, plus one parent/caretaker, recruited from two regions of the US.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objectives: To test associations between neighborhood social, built, and ambient environment characteristics and multidimensional sleep health in Hispanic/Latino adults.
Methods: Data were from San Diego-based Hispanic/Latino adults mostly of Mexican heritage enrolled in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (N = 342). Home addresses were geocoded to ascertain neighborhood characteristics of greenness, walkability (density of intersections, retail spaces, and residences), socioeconomic deprivation (e.
Lancet Public Health
September 2023
Urban green and blue spaces (UGBS) have the potential to improve public health and wellbeing, address health inequities, and provide co-benefits for the environment, economy, and society. To achieve these ambitions, researchers should engage with communities, practitioners, and policy makers in a virtuous circle of research, policy, implementation, and active citizenship using the principles of co-design, co-implementation, co-evaluation, and co-translation. This Viewpoint provides an integrated perspective on the challenges that hinder the delivery of health-enhancing UGBS and recommendations to address them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding how neighborhood environments are related to older adults' quality of life (QoL) and physical activity (PA) is important for public health actions on healthy ageing in sub-Saharan Africa. We examined associations of perceived neighborhood environment attributes with QoL among older adults in Nigeria and investigated the moderating effects of PA on these associations. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 353 older adults (mean age = 68.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Neighborhood walkability is favorably related to multiple physical health outcomes, but associations with social health are less clear. Present analyses examined how neighborhood walkability was related to neighborhood social health and explored the potential confounding role of neighborhood self-selection.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were analyzed for 1745 adults, ages 20-66, recruited from two US regions.
J Sport Health Sci
September 2023
• Research produced during the pandemic showed pre-diagnosis physical activity was associated with substantially lower risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes. • Pandemic restrictions on common places for physical activity were associated with decreased physical activity and increased sedentary behavior. • There were few studies of interventions to increase physical activity during the pandemic, the role of physical activity in COVID-19 inequities, and built environment contributions to COVID-19 outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey (NEMS) measures were developed to assess the consumer food environment in stores and restaurants. NEMS tools have been widely used in research and adapted for diverse settings and populations in the 15 years since they were created. This systematic review examines the use and adaptations of these measures and what can be learned from published studies using NEMS tools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Physical activity is important for children's health and well-being. Supportiveness for physical activity of home and neighborhood environments may affect children's PA, but most studies are cross-sectional. We examined environmental predictors of change in children's physical activity over two years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of streetscape audits among online observations using the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes-Global version (MAPS-Global) in Japan. MAPS-Global observations were conducted on routes with distances ranging from 400 to 725 m from a residence toward a non-residential destination. Google Street View audits were independently conducted by two trained raters on each route.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Physical activity before COVID-19 infection is associated with less severe outcomes. The study determined whether a dose‒response association was observed and whether the associations were consistent across demographic subgroups and chronic conditions.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study of Kaiser Permanente Southern California adult patients who had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis between January 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021 was created.
Background: A better understanding of the extent to which psychosocial and environmental correlates of physical activity are specific to locations would inform intervention optimization.
Purpose: To investigate cross-sectional associations of location-general and location-specific variables with physical activity and sedentary time in three common locations adolescents spend time.
Methods: Adolescents (N = 472,M = 14.
We examined associations of micro-scale environment attributes (e.g., sidewalks, street crossings) with three physical activity (PA) measures among Hispanic/Latino adults (n = 1776) living in San Diego County, CA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life in extraordinary ways impacting health and daily mobility. Public transit provides a strategy to improve individual and population health through increased active travel and reduced vehicle dependency, while ensuring equitable access to jobs, healthcare, education, and mitigating climate change. However, health safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic eroded ridership, which could have longstanding negative consequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Latina women are less likely to report engaging in leisure-time physical activity (PA) than non-Latina white women. This study evaluated the 24-month impact of a faith-based PA intervention targeting Latinas.
Methods: The study is a cluster randomized controlled trial of a PA intervention or cancer screening comparison condition, with churches as the randomization unit.
Physical activity is one of the most efficacious pathways to promoting mental and physical health, preventing disease, and, most important during the COVID-19 pandemic, bolstering a stronger immune system. Efforts to "flatten the curve" have resulted in the temporary closure of exercise facilities and gyms, suspension of sport activities, and advisories to avoid public recreational spaces. All of these changes have made traditional opportunities to be physically active difficult to access.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study examined the strength, shape and direction of associations of accelerometer-assessed overall, school- and non-school-based moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time (ST) with BMI among adolescents across the world. Second, we examined whether these associations differed by study site and sex.
Methods: Cross-sectional data from the IPEN Adolescent study, an observational multi-country study, were used.
Tragically, the United States (US) surpassed one million documented deaths due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A convincing association between unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19 infection has already been demonstrated and communicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in public health messaging. The US is experiencing not a pandemic, but a syndemic, specifically an unhealthy lifestyle behaviors-chronic diseases-COVID-19 syndemic.
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