Associations between physical activity and the neighbourhood social environment: baseline results from the HABITAT multilevel study
Section snippets
Background
Among older populations, physical inactivity has been associated with lower quality of life, and higher rates of morbidity and mortality (Lee et al., 2012, Yen et al., 2009). As physical activity generally declines with age, societies face the challenge of keeping people active as they age (Von Bonsdorff and Rantanen, 2011). Investments in promoting regular physical activity in populations across the life-span can produce returns in the form of greater independence and productivity later in
Sample design and neighbourhood-level unit of analysis
This study used data from the How Areas in Brisbane Influence healTh And acTivity (HABITAT) project. HABITAT is a multilevel longitudinal (2007–2018) study of mid-aged adults (40–65 years in 2007) living in Brisbane, Australia. The primary aim of HABITAT is to examine patterns of change in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health over the period 2007–2018 and to assess the relative contributions of environmental, social, psychological and socio-demographic factors to these changes. In
Results
Descriptive statistics for individual and neighbourhood-level socioeconomic measures and physical activity are presented in Table 2. ‘High’ was the most frequently (39.4%) reported level of physical activity, ranging from 33.5% (individuals residing in Q4 disadvantaged neighbourhoods, where Q5 is the most disadvantaged) to 51.5% (household income greater than $130,000). Very low was the least frequently reported level of physical activity (13.9%), ranging from 9.3% (household income greater
Discussion
This study revealed negative associations between neighbourhood-level perceptions of incivilities and crime, and self-reported physical activity. These findings support our hypothesis that residents of neighbourhoods with lower perceived levels of incivilities and crime are more likely to report higher levels of physical activity. However, we did not find evidence of associations between perceived levels of social cohesion and physical activity.
The study findings are inconsistent with previous
Conflict of interest
The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The HABITAT study is funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (#497236, 339718, 1047453). JNR, FG, and VHYL are supported by the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities (#1061404). At the time the manuscript was written GT was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (#1003710).
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