title: Is walkability associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk?
abstract: Walkability of residential environments has been associated with more walking. Given the health benefits of walking, it is expected that people living in locations with higher measured walkability should have a lower risk of cardiometabolic diseases. This study tested the hypothesis that higher walkability was associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk (CMR) for two administrative spatial units and three road buffers. Data were from the North West Adelaide Health Study first wave of data collected between 2000 and 2003. CMR was expressed as a cumulative sum of six clinical risk markers, selected to reflect components of the metabolic syndrome. Walkability was based on an established methodology and operationalised as dwelling density, intersection density, land-use mix and retail footprint. Walkability was associated with lower CMR for the three road buffer representations of the built environment but not for the two administrative spatial units. This may indicate a limitation in the use of administrative spatial units for analyses of walkability and health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Social Epidemiology and Evaluation Research Group, Sansom Institute for Health Research, Division of Health Sciences, GPO Box 2471, CEA-01, City East Campus, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5001, Australia. neil.coffee@unisa.edu.au
authors.forename: Neil T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Coffee
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paquet
authors.forename: Graeme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hugo
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daniel
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004779:Environment Design / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D013021:South Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*