Patterns of Walkability, Transit, and Recreation Environment for Physical Activity

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Public Health
• Urban Planning

Background:

• Diverse built environment (BE) feature combinations for physical activity (PA) remain understudied.
• This research investigates how patterns of GIS-derived BE features relate to PA, sedentary behavior, and BMI.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the relationship between latent profiles of built environment features and objectively measured and self-reported physical activity.
• To determine if BE patterns explain variations in physical activity, sedentary behavior, and BMI in adults.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 2,199 Neighborhood Quality of Life Study participants (aged 20-65).
• Geocoded addresses to derive BE features (density, land use mix, transit, recreation) within a 1-km buffer.
• Applied Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify BE patterns and multilevel regression to assess their association with PA and BMI.

Main Results:

• Seattle: Four BE profiles identified, with the highest walkability/transit/recreation profile showing significantly higher moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), walking, and leisure PA, and lower BMI compared to the lowest profile.
• Baltimore: Four BE profiles identified, with high land use mix/transit/recreation and high intersection density/retail floor area ratio profiles showing significantly higher MVPA and walking for transportation, respectively, compared to the lowest profile.

Conclusions:

• Patterns of built environment features explain substantial differences in adult physical activity.
• These BE patterns demonstrate greater explanatory power for physical activity than the standard four-component walkability index.