Search

Background: The relation between neighbourhood environmental factors and domain-specific sedentary behaviours among adults remains unclear. This study firstly aims to examine the association of perceived and objectively measured neighbourhood safety, aesthetics, destinations and functionality with transport-related, work-related and leisure-time sedentary behaviour. Secondly, the study aims to assess whether these associations are moderated by age, gender or educational level. Methods: In 60 randomly sampled neighbourhoods from 5 urban regions in Europe (Ghent and suburbs, Paris and inner suburbs, Budapest and suburbs, the Randstad, and Greater London), a virtual audit with Google Street View was performed to assess environmental characteristics. A total of 5,205 adult inhabitants of these neighbourhoods reported socio-demographic characteristics, sedentary behaviours, and neighbourhood perceptions in an online survey. Generalized linear mixed models were conducted to examine associations between physical environmental neighbourhood factors and sedentary behaviours. Interaction terms were added to test the moderating role of individual-level socio-demographic variables. Results: Lower levels of leisure-time sedentary behaviour (i.e. all leisure activities except television viewing and computer use) were observed among adults who perceived greater numbers of destinations such as supermarkets, recreational facilities, or restaurants in their neighbourhood, and among adults who lived in a neighbourhood with more objectively measured aesthetic features, such as trees, water areas or public parks. Lower levels of work-related sedentary behaviour were observed among adults who perceived less aesthetic features in their neighbourhood, and among adults who lived in a neighbourhood with less objectively measured destinations. Both age, gender and educational level moderated the associations between neighbourhood environmental factors and sedentary behaviours. Conclusion: Preliminary evidence was found for associations between neighbourhood environmental factors and domain-specific sedentary behaviours among adults. However, these associations varied according to objective or subjective environmental measures. More research is needed to confirm and clarify the associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The availability of outdoor recreational facilities is associated with increased leisure-time physical activity (PA). We investigated how much of this association is attributable to selection effects, and explored whether usage of recreational facilities was an explanatory mechanism. Methods: We analysed data from 5199 participants in the SPOTLIGHT survey residing in five European urban regions. Adults completed a survey and a Google Street View-based virtual audit was conducted to objectively measure the availability of outdoor recreational facilities in the residential neighbourhood. We used negative binomial GEE models to examine the association between objective and subjective availability of outdoor recreational facilities and leisure-time PA, and explored whether this association was attenuated after adjustment for socioeconomic status and preference for neighbourhoods with recreational facilities (as indicators of self-selection). We examined whether reported use of recreational facilities was associated with leisure-time PA (as explanatory mechanism), and summarized the most important motivations for (not) using recreational facilities. Results: Subjective – but not objective – availability of outdoor recreational facilities was associated with higher levels of total leisure-time PA. After adjustment for self-selection (which attenuated the association by 25%), we found a 25% difference in weekly minutes of total leisure-time PA between individuals with and without self-reported availability of outdoor recreational facilities. For our study population, this translates to about 28 min per week. Participants who reported outdoor recreational facilities to be present but indicated not to use them (RR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.03;1.22), and those reporting outdoor recreational facilities to be present and to use them (RR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.22, 1.45) had higher levels of total leisure-time PA than those who reported outdoor recreational facilities not to be present. Proximity to outdoor recreational facilities was the most important motivation for use. Conclusion: The modest attenuation in the association between availability of outdoor recreational facilities and self-reported leisure-time PA suggests that individuals' higher activity levels may be due more to the perceived availability of outdoor recreational facilities than to self-selection. The use of these facilities seemed to be an important underlying mechanism, and proximity was the main motivator for using recreational facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable proportion of European adults report little or no interest in physical activity. Identifying individual-level and environmental-level characteristics of these individuals can help designing effective interventions and policies to promote physical activity. This cross-sectional study additionally explored associations between level of interest and physical activity, after controlling for other individual and environmental variables. Measures of objective and perceived features of the physical environment of residence, self-reported physical activity and other lifestyle behaviors, barriers towards physical activity, general health, and demographics were obtained from 5205 European adults participating in the 2014 online SPOTLIGHT survey. t-Tests, chi-square tests, and generalized estimating equations with negative binomial log-link function were conducted. Adults not interested in physical activity reported a higher BMI and a lower self-rated health, were less educated, and to a smaller extent female and less frequently employed. They were more prone to have less healthy eating habits, and to perceive more barriers towards physical activity. Only minor differences were observed in environmental attributes: the non-interested were slightly more likely to live in neighborhoods objectively characterized as less aesthetic and containing more destinations, and perceived as less functional, safe, and aesthetic. Even after controlling for other individual and environmental factors, interest in physical activity remained a significant correlate of physical activity, supporting the importance of this association. This study is among the first to describe characteristics of individuals with reduced interest in physical activity, suggesting that (lack of) interest is a robust correlate of physical activity in several personal and environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of energy-balance related behaviors on the association of neighborhood socio-economic status (SES) and neighborhood residential area density (RAD) with body mass index (BMI).Methods: In total, 6037 adults from four neighborhood types (high SES/high RAD, high SES/low RAD, low SES/high RAD, and low SES/low RAD) in five Mid-European urban regions completed an online survey asking about their energy-balance related behaviors (physical activity [PA], sedentary behavior, and dietary behavior), determinants of these behaviors and their body weight and height. MacKinnon's product-of-coefficients test was used to assess mediating effects.Results: Transport-related PA, leisure-time PA and vegetable intake seemed to mediate the association between neighborhood type and BMI. Residents from low SES/low RAD neighborhoods reported less transport-related PA, less leisure-time PA and less vegetable intake than high SES/high RAD residents, and these behaviors (i.e. transport-related PA, leisure-time PA and vegetable intake) were related to having a higher BMI.Conclusion: The association between neighborhood type and BMI can be explained, at least in part, by energy-balance related behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]