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Built Environment Correlates of Walking: A Review
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in empirical investigation into the relations between built environment and physical activity. To create places that facilitate and encourage walking, practitioners need an understanding of the specific characteristics of the built environment that correlate most strongly with walking. This article reviews evidence on the built environment correlates with walking. METHOD: Included in this review were 13 reviews published between 2002 and 2006 and 29 original studies published in 2005 and up through May 2006. Results were summarized based on specific characteristics of the built environment and transportation walking versus recreational walking. RESULTS: Previous reviews and newer studies document consistent positive relations between walking for transportation and density, distance to nonresidential destinations, and land use mix; findings for route/network connectivity, parks and open space, and personal safety are more equivocal. Results regarding recreational walking were less clear. CONCLUSIONS: More recent evidence supports the conclusions of prior reviews, and new studies address some of the limitations of earlier studies. Although prospective studies are needed, evidence on correlates appears sufficient to support policy changes.
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“The large majority of studies in these reviews found that perceived or objective measures of safety were positively associated with physical activity, including among women and men, and with use of parks and park activities.”
From Population Approaches to Improve Diet, Physical Activity, and Smoking Habits: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2012) · cites this paper as [359]
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“Among studies that evaluated only walking, rather than overall physical activity, a minority found significant associations with attributes of neighborhood safety.”
From Population Approaches to Improve Diet, Physical Activity, and Smoking Habits: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2012) · cites this paper as [359]
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Metadata
- Authors
- SAELENS, B. E., & HANDY, S. L.
- Affiliations
- Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Venue
- Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
- Published
- 2008-07
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- S550-S566
- ISSN
- 0195-9131 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2921187
- OpenAlex
- W2005544339
- Cited by
- 1,912
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 79 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 105 · 2023: 99 · 2022: 106 · 2021: 115 · 2020: 133 · 2019: 137 · 2018: 112 · 2017: 127 · 2016: 124 · 2015: 123 · 2014: 121 · 2013: 111 · 2012: 113
- FWCI
- 11.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES014240, R01ES014240)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Urban Transport and Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Green Space and Health
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
- Keywords
- built environment, walking, walking for transportation, recreational walking, mixed land use, land use density, parks and open space, personal safety, physical activity
- MeSH terms
- City Planning, Environment Design, Humans, Population Density, Safety, Transportation, Walking
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