Perceived neighborhood environment and physical activity in 11 countries: do associations differ by country?

Nan, Ding; Adams, Marc A; Sallis, James F; Norman, Gregory J; Hovell, Melbourn F; Chambers, Christina D; Hofstetter, C Richard; Bowles, Heather R; Hagströmer, Maria; Craig, Cora L; Gomez, Luis Fernando; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse; Macfarlane, Duncan J; Ainsworth, Barbara E; Bergman, Patrick; Bull, Fiona C; Carr, Harriette; Klasson-Heggebo, Lena; Inoue, Shigeru; Murase, Norio; Matsudo, Sandra; Matsudo, Victor; McLean, Grant; Sjöström, Michael; Tomten, Heidi; Lefevre, Johan; Volbekiene, Vida; Bauman, Adrian E

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-57

Perceived neighborhood environment and physical activity in 11 countries: do associations differ by country?

Author:

Nan, Ding

Adams, Marc A ; Sallis, James F ; Norman, Gregory J ; Hovell, Melbourn F ; Chambers, Christina D ; Hofstetter, C Richard ; Bowles, Heather R ; Hagströmer, Maria ; Craig, Cora L ; Gomez, Luis Fernando ; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse ; Macfarlane, Duncan J ; Ainsworth, Barbara E ; Bergman, Patrick ; Bull, Fiona C ; Carr, Harriette ; Klasson-Heggebo, Lena ; Inoue, Shigeru ; Murase, Norio ; Matsudo, Sandra ; Matsudo, Victor ; McLean, Grant ; Sjöström, Michael ; Tomten, Heidi ; Lefevre, Johan ; Volbekiene, Vida ; Bauman, Adrian E

Keywords:

Bicycling, Environment Design, Exercise, Health Behavior, Housing, Humans, Internationality, Logistic Models, Perception, Public Facilities, Recreation, Residence Characteristics, Transportation, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Nutrition & Dietetics, Physiology, Physical activity, Built environment, Neighborhood environment, International, Generalizability, Moderator, BUILT ENVIRONMENT, ACTIVITY QUESTIONNAIRE, WALKING BEHAVIOR, SHORT-FORM, OBESITY, WALKABILITY, RELIABILITY, INACTIVITY, WORLDWIDE, VALIDITY, 11 Medical and Health Sciences, 13 Education, Public Health, 3210 Nutrition and dietetics, 4202 Epidemiology, 4207 Sports science and exercise

Abstract:

Increasing empirical evidence supports associations between neighborhood environments and physical activity. However, since most studies were conducted in a single country, particularly western countries, the generalizability of associations in an international setting is not well understood. The current study examined whether associations between perceived attributes of neighborhood environments and physical activity differed by country.