Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 93, December 2016, Pages 219-225
Preventive Medicine

Associations between physical activity and the neighbourhood social environment: baseline results from the HABITAT multilevel study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.06.034Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examined associations between the social environment and physical activity

  • Exposure measures were generated via split clusters and empirical Bayes estimation

  • Higher levels of physical activity were associated with lower crime and incivilities

  • No associations were found between physical activity and social cohesion

Abstract

Limitations have arisen when measuring associations between the neighbourhood social environment and physical activity, including same-source bias, and the reliability of aggregated neighbourhood-level social environment measures. This study examines cross-sectional associations between the neighbourhood social environment (perceptions of incivilities, crime, and social cohesion) and self-reported physical activity, while accounting for same-source bias and reliability of neighbourhood-level exposure measures, using data from a large population-based clustered sample. This investigation included 11,035 residents aged 40–65 years from 200 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia, in 2007. Respondents self-reported their physical activity and perceptions of the social environment (neighbourhood incivilities, crime and safety, and social cohesion). Models were adjusted for individual-level education, occupation, and household income, and neighbourhood disadvantage. Exposure measures were generated via split clusters and an empirical Bayes estimation procedure. Data were analysed in 2016 using multilevel multinomial logistic regression. Residents of neighbourhoods with the highest incivilities and crime, and lowest social cohesion were reference categories. Individuals were more likely to be in the higher physical activity categories if they were in neighbourhoods with the lowest incivilities and the lowest crime. No associations were found between social cohesion and physical activity. This study provides a basis from which to gain a clearer understanding of the relationship between the neighbourhood social environment and individual physical activity. Further work is required to explore the pathways between perceptions of the neighbourhood social environment and physical activity.

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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