Background: Lack of physical activity accounts for 25% of all chronic disease deaths and 10% of all deaths in the U.S. annually. Twenty-nine percent of American adults are sedentary, and more than 60% of the population are overweight. Therefore, engaging in moderate physical activity can positively impact health outcomes. Recent attention has focused on the benefits of designing communities to support physical activity. This study examines the relationship between urban form and walking and bicycling (recreational and utilitarian) for 41 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).
Methods: Data from the 1994, 1996, and 1998 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) were used to estimate the levels of recreational walking/bicycling and utilitarian walking/bicycling, respectively. SAS and SUDAAN were used to generate estimates and standard errors at the MSA level. Correlation estimates were generated to compare recreational and utilitarian walking/bicycling at the MSA level. Estimates from SUDAAN were exported into ArcView and analyzed spatially.
Results: No significant correlation between recreational and utilitarian walking/bicycling at the MSA level was detected. Nonetheless, a GIS served as a powerful tool in detecting meaningful patterns in the data.
Conclusions: Although the methodological limitations may have produced potentially spurious results, this ecological study demonstrates that transportation mode, a proxy measure of infrastructure, is not correlated with physical activity levels. The determinants for recreational walking/bicycling may differ from the determinants for utilitarian walking/bicycling. Further studies are needed understand the factors that promote both recreational and utilitarian walking/bicycling at the community level.
Learning Objectives: Participant should be able to 1) understand the potential influences of community design and transportation systems on walking and bicycling 2) explain the benefits of using a GIS 3) discuss opportunities to use these data to implement changes in policy.
Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Physical Activity
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.