ArticleCMAJ open
Residents of highly walkable neighbourhoods in Canadian urban areas do substantially more physical activity: a cross-sectional analysis.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How different are objective operationalizations of walkability for older adults compared to the general population? A systematic review.BMC geriatrics · 2022Pooled it
- Associations between Walk Score and objective measures of physical activity in urban overweight and obese women.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Associations of neighbourhood walkability with patterns of device-measured stepping, standing and sitting.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
- Exposure to Neighborhood Walkability and Residential Greenness and Incident Fracture.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- The Weight of Place: Built Environment Correlates of Obesity and Diabetes.Endocrine reviews · 2022Review
- Joint associations between neighborhood walkability, greenness, and particulate air pollution on cardiovascular mortality among adults with a history of stroke or acute myocardial infarction.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2022Article
- Neighborhood's locality, road types, and residents' multimorbidity: evidence from China's middle-aged and older adults.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Active and Fit Communities. Associations between Neighborhood Walkability and Health-Related Fitness in Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Is neighbourhood walkability related to body mass index among different age groups? A cross-sectional study of Canadian urban areas.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Association Between Neighborhood Walkability and Predicted 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The CANHEART (Cardiovascular Health in Ambulatory Care Research Team) Cohort.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2019Article
- Test-Retest Reliability and Walk ScoreInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Walk ScoreInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Cross-sectional associations of active transport, employment status and objectively measured physical activity: analyses from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2018Article
- Clinically Assessed Walking Capacity Versus Real-World Walking Performance in People with Multiple Sclerosis.International journal of MS careArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResearch has shown that neighbourhood walkability is associated with small differences in physical activity; however, the health impacts of these small differences have been questioned. We examined the size of the association of walkability with accelerometer-measured physical activity in a large, national-level Canadian population, and compared results to physical activity levels recommended in international guidelines. Our primary objective was to investigate the direction and size of the differences in physical activity that were related to walkability, and whether these differences depended on age.
methodsParticipants were included from among respondents to the 2007-2011 Canadian Health Measures Surveys who lived in urban areas and were aged 6-79 years. The Canadian Health Measures Surveys are ongoing cross-sectional surveys of a Canada-wide population. Respondents were divided into quintiles based on Street Smart Walk Score® values of their census dissemination areas. For all respondents and age subgroups, we used covariate-adjusted generalized linear models to estimate differences between quintiles in accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time.
resultsWe included 7180 respondents. Differences in participant MVPA between highest and lowest Street Smart Walk Score quintiles were 3.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] -3.2 to 9.6) minutes/day for ages 6-11 years, 11.4 (95% CI 5.3 to 17.4) minutes/day for ages 12-17 years, 9.9 (95% CI 2.4 to 17.4) minutes/day for ages 18-29 years, 14.9 (95% CI 10.2 to 19.6) minutes/day for ages 30-44 years, 11.5 (95% CI 6.7 to 16.3) minutes/day for ages 45-64 years and 6.9 (95% CI 3.1 to 10.8) minutes/day for ages 65-79 years. There were no significant differences in sedentary time in any age group.
interpretationIn all groups except the youngest, participants in the most walkable areas did significantly more MVPA than those in the least walkable areas. For several age groups, this difference was approximately one-half to two-thirds of the amount recommended in guidelines for physical activity. Substantially higher MVPA levels suggest that residents of highly walkable areas may have greater health benefits.
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