摘要：Objectives. We examined associations of attractiveness, size, and proximity of multiple neighborhood open spaces (NOSs) with recreational walking. Methods. Adults participating in the Residential Environments (RESIDE) study (n = 1366) in Perth, Australia, reported time spent engaging in recreational walking within their neighborhoods. Park audit data and geographic information systems were used to identify the most attractive, largest, and nearest NOS within a 1.6-km radius from each participant's residential location. Regression analysis was used to examine attributes (attractiveness, size, and proximity) of these open spaces and their associations with participants’ recreational walking. Results. Shorter distance to attractive open spaces was associated with doing any recreational walking, but adults with larger attractive open spaces within 1.6 km of their home were more likely to walk 150 minutes or more in a week. Conclusions. For adults, the presence of a large, high-quality park within walking distance of one's home may be more important in promoting sufficient amounts of walking for health benefits than is the presence of an open space within a shorter distance. The impact of the built environment on health and active living is an emerging field of study.1 In the United States, the 2001 launch of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living Research program accelerated growth in this field by promoting multidisciplinary research that includes investigators from health, urban planning, transportation, and leisure.2 Research in this area addresses the mechanisms through which community design can influence daily physical activity, and how these findings can be used to develop evidence-based policy aimed at creating user-friendly environments for pedestrians and cyclists.3 It has become increasingly important to identify modifiable, high-leverage environmental attributes that can be used in planning, policy, and practice. Neighborhood open spaces (NOSs), typically parks, provide destinations to which people can walk and are ideal settings for leisure-time physical activity. 4 Adults with better access to neighborhood green spaces have shown enhanced physical health, which in part is mediated through elevated levels of walking. 5 Promoting walking is a centerpiece of public health strategy for preventing major chronic diseases, because of its popularity and known health benefits. 6 , 7 NOS is thus an important resource that has the potential to facilitate more active lifestyles. In addition, there is growing evidence that exposure to natural environments is restorative and beneficial to mental health. 5 , 8 Given the burden of disease associated with physical inactivity and poor mental health, 9 understanding how to design NOS to attract residents and encourage use is likely to help enhance population health. 4 Associations have been consistently found between physical activity and the presence of destinations, such as shops and services in neighborhoods. 10 – 12 However, a review of the relationships between attributes of natural or green open spaces and residents’ physical activity found positive associations in only about half of the studies reviewed, suggesting mixed evidence on this topic. 13 Inconsistencies may be at least partly attributable to the different methods used to capture the green elements of neighborhoods. Measures used to date can be classified into 2 types: focusing on overall neighborhood greenness, and focusing on a particular NOS. An example of the overall measure is perceived neighborhood greenness, such as the self-reported amount of greenery or access to parks and other green spaces, which has been shown to be associated with walking. 5 , 14 Objectively measured size or density of green spaces within a neighborhood is another overall measure of greenness. Such objective measures have been found to be associated with physical activity in some studies, 15 – 17 but not in others. 18 , 19 A study in the United States used a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; the amount of green surface identified using satellite images), and found that this overall measure did not predict residents’ walking. 14 An Australian study identified objective overall access to public open spaces using a gravity model, and found that distance to open spaces alone was not associated with walking. 20 Other studies have used a measure focusing on a particular NOS. For instance, the presence of a park within walking distance from a participant's home was found to be unrelated to physical activity levels. 21 , 22 Several studies have also reported that the distance to the nearest NOS was not associated with physical activity. 23 – 25 However, 1 study found that shorter distance to a park was conducive to more activity. 26 In addition, walking by older people was associated with the quality of a nearby NOS. 27 These studies suggest that an objective overall measure of NOS, such as the total size of green spaces in a neighborhood or NDVI, may be inadequate because it cannot distinguish open spaces that encourage physical activity from those that are uninviting or inaccessible. Notably, perceived greenness measures that involved the perception of quality have been found to be associated with participants’ physical activity. 5 , 14 As the aesthetic aspects of neighborhood environments have been shown to be relevant to residents’ physical activity, 28 the attractiveness of open spaces may need to be considered when assessing the relationships between such spaces and participation in physical activity. The presence of park features (e.g., walking paths, facilities for physical activity) is also relevant in this context because they were associated with active park use. 29 Measures focusing on a particular NOS (typically, the park closest to a person's place of residence) may be also inadequate for evaluating the impact of overall green spaces on residents’ behavior, because neighborhoods typically have many open spaces that vary in quality and in size. To better understand the contribution of open space to residents’ physical activity levels, there is a need to examine more comprehensive open space attributes such as attractiveness, size, and proximity. Research also needs to investigate multiple open spaces to more accurately assess the impact of open, green spaces in the neighborhood area on physical activity. In our study, we identified 3 types of NOS that adults may typically visit for recreation: the most attractive, the largest, and the nearest. We then examined which of the 3 attributes—attractiveness, size, and distance—of these open spaces were more strongly associated with adult residents’ recreational walking. We also examined whether the number of open spaces in a neighborhood was associated with recreational walking.
