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).
Walking for transportation is a common and accessible means of achieving recommended physical activity levels, while providing important social and environmental co-benefits. Even though walking in rapidly growing urban areas has become especially challenging given the increasing dependence on motorised transportation, walking remains a major mode of transportation in Latin American cities. In this paper we aimed to quantify self-reported walking for transportation in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires, by identifying both walking trips that are conducted entirely on foot and walking events involved in trips mainly conducted on other means of transportation (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParks and greenspaces can enhance personal health in various ways, including among others, through psychological restoration and improved well-being. However, under certain circumstances, parks may also have adverse effects by providing isolated and hidden spaces for non-normative and crime-related activities. This study uses a survey conducted by the Development Bank of Latin America in a cross-sectional representative sample of 7,110 respondents in eleven Latin-American cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Features of the urban physical environment may be linked to the development of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for global burden of disease.
Objectives: We examined associations of urban physical environment features with hypertension and blood pressure measures in adults across 230 Latin American cities.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study we used health, social, and built environment data from the SALud URBana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project.
Background: Recent studies highlight the equigenic potential of greenspaces by showing narrower socioeconomic health inequalities in greener areas. However, results to date have been inconsistent and derived from high-income countries. We examined whether urban greenness modifies the associations between area-level education, as a proxy for socioeconomic status, and life expectancy and cause-specific mortality in Latin American cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examines how park use may be associated with perceived park proximity, neighborhood-built environment and perceived social disorder in Latin American cities. The study uses self-reported data from the 2016 CAF survey, including 7,970 urban residents from 11 cities across Latin America. Results show positive graded associations between perceived park proximity and use, holding all others constant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
May 2019
There is evidence that the built environment can promote unhealthy habits which may increase the risk for obesity among adolescents. However, the majority of evidence is from North America, Europe and Australia, and less is known about other world regions. The purpose of this study was to examine how the number of overweight and obese adolescents may vary in relation to the built environment, area socioeconomic status (SES), physical activity (PA) and nutritional home environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
July 2017
Children's outdoors play (OP) is an important source of physical activity that has been decreasing in recent years due to changes in neighborhood design, parent safety concerns and child sedentary leisure. However, few studies examined such determinants from children's perspectives. This study explores environmental and socio-cultural aspects of children's OP using a qualitative and quantitative approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
June 2017
The literature on environmental walkability to date has mainly focused on walking and related health outcomes. While previous studies suggest associations between walking and spatial knowledge, the associations between environmental walkability and spatial knowledge is yet to be explored. The current study addresses this lacuna in research by exploring children's mental representations of their home-school (h-s) route, vis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWalking is a central form of physical activity among older adults that is associated with the physical environment at various scales. This mixed-methods study employs a concurrent nested design to explore objective and perceived environmental characteristics of older adults' local walking routes. This was achieved by integrating quantitative Geographic Information System (GIS) data with qualitative data obtained using the Stanford Discovery Tool (DT).
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