Context and objectivesNeighbourhood effect research on obesity took off in the early 2000s and was composed of mostly cross-sectional observational studies interested in various characteristics of the built environment and the socioeconomic environment. To limit biases related to self-selection and life course exposures, many researchers apply longitudinal designs in their studies. Until now, no review has specifically and exclusively examined longitudinal studies and the specific designs of these studies. In this review, we intend to answer the following research question: how are the temporal measurements of contextual exposure and obesity outcomes integrated into longitudinal studies that explore how neighbourhood-level built and socioeconomic environments impact adult obesity?DesignA systematic search strategy was designed to address the research question. The search was performed in Embase, Web of Science and PubMed, targeting scientific papers published before 1 January 2018. The eligible studies reported results on adults, included exposure that was limited to neighbourhood characteristics at the submunicipal level, included an outcome limited to obesity proxies, and reported a design with at least two exposure measurements or two outcome measurements.ResultsThis scoping review identified 66 studies that fit the eligibility criteria. A wide variety of neighbourhood characteristics were also measured, making it difficult to draw general conclusions about associations between neighbourhood exposure and obesity. We applied a typology that classified studies by whether exposure and outcome were measured as varying or fixed. Using this typology, we found that 32 studies reported both neighbourhood exposure and obesity outcomes that were varying in time; 28 reported varying outcomes but fixed exposures; and 6 had fixed outcomes and varying exposures.ConclusionOur typology illustrates the variety of longitudinal designs that were used in the selected studies. In the light of our results, we make recommendations on how to better report longitudinal designs and facilitate comparisons between studies.

The desire to use public transport, or use it more frequently, can be an important indicator of people's intention to travel by public transport. However, the desired and relative desired travel amount (wanting to travel less or more) in the context of public transport use has not yet been analyzed. In this paper, we examine the relationship between actual and desired public transport frequency of 986 students of Laval University, Canada. Results indicate that most respondents have a desired public transport frequency close to their actual frequency. In line with the model of goal-directed behavior we found that -based on ordered logit models -the desire for frequently using public transport is positively affected by attitudes towards -and satisfaction with -public transport, while the desired public transport frequency positively influences actual public transport frequency. Besides positive effects of attitudes and satisfaction, we also found that the desire to travel more frequently by public transport is positively affected by easy car access and living in rural areas. This suggests that rural residents are potential public transport users who are perhaps restricted by their living context and that moving into urban areas may present an opportunity for them to increase public transport use. Finally, we also found that the intention to use public transport in later life (i.e., after university) is positively affected by respondents' desired public transport frequency.

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