摘要：Objectives. This study evaluated a neighborhood environment survey and compared the physical activity and weight status of the residents in 2 neighborhoods. Methods. On 2 occasions, 107 adults from neighborhoods with differing “walkability” were selected to complete a survey on their neighborhood environment. Physical activity was assessed by self-report and by accelerometer; height and weight were assessed by self-report. Results. Neighborhood environment characteristics had moderate to high test–retest reliabilities. Residents of high-walkability neighborhoods reported higher residential density, land use mix, street connectivity, aesthetics, and safety. They had more than 70 more minutes of physical activity and had lower obesity prevalence (adjusted for individual demographics) than did residents of low-walkability neighborhoods. Conclusions. The reliability and validity of self-reported neighborhood environment subscales were supported. Neighborhood environment was associated with physical activity and overweight prevalence. We have observed growing disappointment among researchers with the inability of individually oriented models to adequately explain the high population prevalence of physical inactivity. 1 The inability of individually focused interventions to create long-term change or population shifts in physical activity also is disappointing. 2, 3 However, interest in the potential of multilevel ecological models to facilitate a better understanding of physical-environment effects on behavior has increased. 4, 5 The small but growing health literature on this subject documents relations between numerous environmental variables and physical activity but provides few definitive explanations. 6, 7 Further investigation of the environmental correlates of physical activity is needed and could lead to improved interventions. The negative effects of low-density, automobile-dependent, segregated-use patterns of land and transport system development are attracting public health attention. 8 Transportation studies indicate that people living in “traditional” neighborhoods—characterized by higher residential density, a mixture of land uses (residential and commercial), and gridlike street patterns with short block lengths—engage in more walking and cycling trips for transport than do people living in sprawling neighborhoods. 9 Transportation research currently provides the best evidence that environmental factors can contribute to low levels of lifestyle physical activity, 10 because many Americans live in environments that can be characterized as low in “walkability.” 11 From a physical activity and health perspective, transportation studies have numerous shortcomings: the contribution of community design to overall physical activity is unknown, only a small number of environmental variables have been studied, and reliable and valid measures of environmental variables are not available. 9 Our study builds on the strengths of transportation research to fill important knowledge gaps. We evaluated self-report measures of neighborhood environment variables hypothesized to be important contributors to physical activity. 7, 12, 13 On the basis of transportation research and to a model of environmental influences on physical activity, 9, 14 self-report measures of neighborhood environmental constructs were developed and assessed for reliability and construct validity. We also compared physical activity and weight status among adult residents living in neighborhoods characterized as having high or low “walkability,” which is defined by residential density, mixed land use, and street connectivity. 9
