Neighborhood Environments and Utilitarian Walking Among Older vs. Younger Rural Adults

Abstract

Introduction: Walking has the potential to promote health across the life span, but age-specific features of the neighborhood environment (NE), especially in rural communities, linked with walking have not been adequately characterized. This study examines the relationships between NE and utilitarian walking among older vs. younger adults living in US rural towns.Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study came from telephone interviews in 2011–2012 with 2,140 randomly sampled younger (18–64 years, n = 1,398) and older (65+ years, n = 742) adults, collecting personal and NE perception variables. NE around each participant's home was also measured objectively using geographic information system techniques. Separate mixed-effects logistic regression models were estimated for the two age groups, predicting the odds of utilitarian walking at least once a week.Results: Perceived presence of crosswalks and pedestrian signals was significantly related to utilitarian walking in both age groups. Among older adults, unattended dogs, lighting at night, and religious institutions were positively while steep slope was negatively associated with their walking. For younger adults, traffic speed (negative, –), public transportation (positive, +), malls (–), cultural/recreational destinations (+), schools (+), and resource production land uses such as farms and mines (–) were significant correlates of utilitarian walking.Conclusion: Different characteristics of NE are associated with utilitarian walking among younger vs. older adults in US rural towns. Optimal modifications of NE to promote walking may need to reflect these age differences.

Differences in the Correlation between the Built Environment and Walking, Moderate, and Vigorous Physical Activity among the Elderly in Low- and High-Income Areas

“…Additionally, walking is the most important and direct way for the elderly to contact the city and the community [11]. The advantages of the health, convenience, and economy of walking are of positive significance for their physical and mental healing, as well as their sense of happiness in life and community identity [12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Ways to study changes in pedestrians’ behaviour in the artificially lit urban outdoor environment

“…This fact, in its turn, leads to shifts in various urban experiences, activity levels and walking patterns of people. It was repeatedly found that outdoor lighting, being one of the components of the built environment, has a significant impact on different forms of physical activity after dark [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Firstly, it was statistically substantiated that ambient lighting conditions affect the number of people who walk or cycle [3][4][5][6].…”

“…Another approach was to collect and analyse self-reported data through on-site and online pedestrian surveys [19,32], interviews [8,15,22,41] and environmental walks [28,68]. Surveys were used for measuring physical activity [9,10,13] (e.g., the Youth Physical Activity Questionnaire [13]), walking and its characteristics (i.e., walking times, frequency, and duration) [16,19,26,27] (e.g., the International Physical Activity Questionnaire [16]), and evaluations of behavioural intents and space perceptions in order to understand likely behaviour in particular sites [24,29,34,38].…”

“…It is notable that a couple of studies used a real-time approach, according to which, participants filled in the surveys while walking along the sites with the help of a paper questionnaire [32] and a mobile phone application [30]. Interviews were used to gather qualitative data about perceived supports and barriers of physical activity [8], utilitarian walking [15] or walking routes [22], as well as unique knowledge from various groups of stakeholders or staff [41,42]. Finally, there were several approaches of guided structured [28] and random [68] environmental walks.…”

Traffic as a barrier to walking safely in the United States: Perceived reasons and potential mitigation strategies

“…Others have investigated perceptions of specific elements of traffic, such as vehicle speed and volume, that may make it a barrier to walking. Many such studies have been conducted outside the United States ( Anciaes et al, 2019 , Cleland et al, 2008 , Ferrari et al, 2020 ) or in a small number of geographic study locations ( Lee et al, 2021 , McGinn et al, 2007 , Stewart et al, 2016 ), and are therefore less informative for the broader US population.…”