title: Associations of street layout with walking and sedentary behaviors in an urban and a rural area of Japan.
abstract: We examined whether street layout -a key urban design element- is associated with walking and sedentary behaviors in the context of a non-Western country; and, whether such associations differ between an urban and a rural area. In 2011, 1076 middle-to-older aged adults living in an urban and a rural area of Japan reported their walking and sedentary (sitting) behaviors. Two objective measures of street layout (intersection density and street integration) were calculated. Participants exposed to more-connected street layouts were more likely to walk for commuting and for errands, to meet physical activity recommendations through walking for commuting, and less likely to drive. These relationships differed between the urban and the rural area. This shows that previous findings from Western countries on associations of street connectivity with travel behaviors may also be applicable to Japan.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan; Behavioural Epidemiology Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Australia; Institute for Health and Ageing, Australian Catholic University, Australia. Electronic address: javad.koohsari@aoni.waseda.jp.
authors.forename: Mohammad Javad
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Koohsari
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Epidemiology Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Australia; Institute for Health and Ageing, Australian Catholic University, Australia. Electronic address: Takemi.Sugiyama@acu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Takemi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. Electronic address: shibata@taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. Electronic address: ishiikaori@aoni.waseda.jp.
authors.forename: Kaori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. Electronic address: anthroliao@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo University, Japan. Electronic address: hanibuchi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tomoya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hanibuchi
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Epidemiology Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Australia. Electronic address: Neville.Owen@bakeridi.edu.au.
authors.forename: Neville
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. Electronic address: koka@waseda.jp.
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oka
mesh_terms: D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Active travel; Asia; Connectivity; Neighborhood; Urban design