The impact of neighborhood walkability on walking: does it differ across adult life stage and does neighborhood buffer size matter?
We explored the impact of neighborhood walkability on young adults, early-middle adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults' walking across different neighborhood buffers. Participants completed the Western Australian Health and Wellbeing Surveillance System Survey (2003-2009) and were allocated a neighborhood walkability score at 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m around their home. We found little difference in strength of associations across neighborhood size buffers for all life stages. We conclude that neighborhood walkability supports more walking regardless of adult life stage and is relevant for small (e.g., 200m) and larger (e.g., 1600m) neighborhood buffers.
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia. Electronic address: k.villanueva@unimelb.edu.au.
Karen
K
Villanueva
School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Matthew
M
Knuiman
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Andrea
A
Nathan
McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Level 5, 207 Bouverie Street, Melbourne Victoria 3010, Australia.
Billie
B
Giles-Corti
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Hayley
H
Christian
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Sarah
S
Foster
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Fiona
F
Bull
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004779:Environment Design; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
Adults; Life stage; Neighborhood buffer; Walkability; Walking