Background While many studies have found the built environment to be associated with walking, most have used cross-sectional research designs and few have examined more distal cardiometabolic outcomes. This study contributes longitudinal evidence based on changes in walking, body mass index (BMI), and cardiometabolic risk following residential relocation. Methods We examined 1,079 participants in the CARDIA study who moved residential locations between 2000 and 2006 (ages 32–46 in 2000, 49% white/51% black, 55% female). We created a walkability index from measures of population density, street connectivity, and food and physical activity resources, measured at participants’ pre- and post-move residential locations. Outcomes measured before and after the move included walking, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, insulin resistance, triglycerides, cholesterol, atherogenic dyslipidemia, and C-reactive protein. Fixed effects (FE) models were used to estimate associations between within-person change in walkability and within-person change in each outcome. These estimates were compared to those from random effects (RE) models to assess the implications of unmeasured confounding. Results In FE models, a one-SD increase in walkability was associated with a 0.81 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure [95% CI: (−1.55, −0.07)] and a 7.36 percent increase in C-reactive protein [95% CI: (0.60, 14.57)]. Although several significant associations were observed in the RE models, Hausman tests suggested that these estimates were biased for most outcomes. RE estimates were most commonly biased away from the null or in the opposite direction of effect as the FE estimates. Conclusions Greater walkability was associated with lower blood pressure and higher C-reactive protein in FE models, potentially reflecting competing health risks and benefits in dense, walkable environments. RE models tended to overstate or otherwise misrepresent the relationship between walkability and health. Approaches that base estimates on variation between individuals may be subject to bias from unmeasured confounding, such as residential self-selection.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tBackground: Cycling for transportation has become an increasingly important component of strategies to address public health, climate change, and air quality concerns in urban centers. Within this context, planners and policy makers would benefit from an improved understanding of available interventions and their relative effectiveness for cycling promotion. We examined predictors of bicycle commuting that are relevant to planning and policy intervention, particularly those amenable to short-and medium-term action. Methods: We estimated a travel mode choice model using data from a survey of 765 commuters who live and work within the municipality of Barcelona. We considered how the decision to commute by bicycle was associated with cycling infrastructure, bike share availability, travel demand incentives, and other environmental attributes (e.g., public transport availability). Self-reported and objective (GIS-based) measures were compared. Point elasticities and marginal effects were calculated to assess the relative explanatory power of the independent variables considered. Results: While both self-reported and objective measures of access to cycling infrastructure were associated with bicycle commuting, self-reported measures had stronger associations. Bicycle commuting had positive associations with access to bike share stations but inverse associations with access to public transport stops. Point elasticities suggested that bicycle commuting has a mild negative correlation with public transport availability (À0.136), bike share availability is more important at the work location (0.077) than at home (0.034), and bicycle lane presence has a relatively small association with bicycle commuting (0.039). Marginal effects suggested that provision of an employer-based incentive not to commute by private vehicle would be associated with an 11.3% decrease in the probability of commuting by bicycle, likely reflecting the typical emphasis of such incentives on public transport. Contents lists available at ScienceDirectTransportation Research Part A j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / t r a public transport, through the presence of public transport stops and the provision of public transport-oriented travel demand incentives. Education and awareness campaigns that influence perceptions of cycling infrastructure availability, travel demand incentives that encourage cycling, and policies that integrate public transport and cycling may be promising and cost-effective strategies to promote cycling in the short to medium term.

No abstract

We used data from 3,227 older adults in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (2004–2012) to explore cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between walkability and cardiometabolic risk factors. In cross-sectional analyses, linear regression was used to estimate associations of Street Smart Walk Score® with glucose, triglycerides, HDL and LDL cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and waist circumference, while logistic regression was used to estimate associations with odds of metabolic syndrome. Econometric fixed effects models were used to estimate longitudinal associations of changes in walkability with changes in each risk factor among participants who moved residential locations between 2004 and 2012 (n=583). Most cross-sectional and longitudinal associations were small and statistically non-significant. We found limited evidence that higher walkability was cross-sectionally associated with lower blood pressure but that increases in walkability were associated with increases in triglycerides and blood pressure over time. Further research over longer time periods is needed to understand the potential for built environment interventions to improve cardiometabolic health.