Neighbourhood vitality and physical activity among the elderly: The role of walkable environments on active ageing in Barcelona, Spain

Associations between time spent in green areas and physical activity among late middle-aged adults

“…The positive association between the time spent in green areas and MVPA is strongest for highly educated people and for those living in a green neighbourhood, indicating that living in a green neighbourhood leads to more PA when time is spent in green areas, which coincides with the findings by McMorris et al (2015). In contrast to previous studies (Berke et al, 2007;Frank et al, 2010;King et al, 2011;Marshall et al, 2014;Van Holle et al, 2014;Marquet and Miralles-Guasch 2015), on the other hand, living in a non-green neighbourhood was not found to be associated with more PA and less sedentary behaviour. The positive association between the time spent at home and sedentary behaviour was found to be the strongest for retired participants, indicating that once retired the time spent at home is often linked with sedentary behaviour.…”

“…For older adults, being confident to be physically active and having social support is positively correlated with PA, while feeling too old has an adverse effect (Bauman and Bull, 2007;Carlson et al, 2012). Next to individual characteristics, the relation of neighbourhood built environment factors and PA has been widely studied in the past, mainly showing that people living in highly walkable neighbourhoods tend to be more physically active (Berke et al, 2007;Frank et al, 2010;King et al, 2011;Marshall et al, 2014;Van Holle et al, 2014;Marquet and Miralles-Guasch, 2015). However, a study based on a national survey on Canadian adults reports that there is a positive association between neighbourhood greenness in a 500 m buffer around the home location and leisure-time PA (McMorris et al, 2015).…”

Neighbourhood environment and physical activity in older adults

“…Social participation has been associated with mortality, morbidity and quality of life in older adults (Levasseur et al, 2010;Berkman et al, 2000). Research has consistently shown that older adults' engagement in social activities is associated with positive outcomes on a variety of health indicators, including, self-rated health, depression, dementia, cognitive functioning, and health behaviors (e.g., Marquet and Miralles-Guasch, 2015;Patela et al, 2013;Pollack, C.E., von dem Knesebeck, 2004;Tunstall et al, 2014) neighbourhood Accessibility (or lack) of key resources in the neighbourhood, such as facilities to engage in preferred physical activities may be predictive of greater social participation by older adults (Richard et al, 2008.…”

Numbers and narratives: Developing a mixed-methods approach to understand mobility in later life

“…In studies that focus on physical activity, GPS tracking is typically combined with accelerometer data. Such studies relate physical activity of, for instance older adults or adolescents, to the walkability of neighborhoods, park visits, and modes of travel such as commuting or school-travel, and public transport (Carlson et al, 2016;Chaix et al, 2014;King et al, 2011;Marquet and Miralles-Guasch, 2015;Stewart et al, 2016;Voss et al, 2014Voss et al, , 2016Winters et al, 2015). Other studies use GPS tracking to measure activity space (Hirsch et al, 2014Lee et al, 2016).…”