Associations Between the Built Environment in GPS-Derived Activity Spaces and Sedentary Behavior, Light Physical...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Urban Planning
• Public Health

Background:

• Traditional built environment and physical activity (PA) research often uses fixed or home-based exposure assessments.
• Novel methods are needed to accurately capture individual environmental exposures related to daily behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between built environment characteristics and sedentary behavior (SB), light PA (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA).
• To evaluate the utility of different GPS-derived activity space metrics (buffered tracks, minimum convex hulls, standard deviational ellipses) in built environment and PA research.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-one adults wore activity monitors and GPS units for data collection.
• Three types of activity spaces were generated: 50 m buffered GPS tracks, minimum convex hulls (MCHs), and standard deviational ellipses (SDEs).
• Environmental variables (land use mix, greenness, trail/bike infrastructure density) were analyzed using repeated measures regression, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

• Greenness within MCH activity spaces was positively associated with LPA (p = 0.02).
• Bike infrastructure density within SDE spaces showed a positive association with MVPA (p = 0.04).
• Multi-use trail, bike infrastructure, and bike station densities were negatively associated with LPA (p ≤ 0.05); no significant associations were found for SB.

Conclusions:

• The relationship between the built environment and physical activity is complex and depends on the type of activity space and outcome measured.
• Greenness and specific active transport infrastructure show potential links to increased physical activity.
• Further research is required to establish optimal and adaptable methods for defining activity spaces in built environment and PA studies.