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Neighborhood walkability refers to characteristics of a neighborhood that can influence walking for recreation and transportation purposes (Brownson et al., 2004 xClose
Brownson, R., Chang, J., Eyler, A., Ainsworth, B., Kirtland, K., Saelens, B., Sallis, J. (2004). Measuring the environment for friendliness toward physical activity: A comparison of the reliability of 3 questionnaires. American Journal of Public Health, 94, 473-483.; Hoehner et al., 2005 xClose
Hoehner, C., Ramirez, L., Elliot, M., Handy, S., Brownson, R. (2005). Perceived and objective environmental measures and physical activity among urban adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(2S2), 105-116.; Cerin et al., 2006 xClose
Cerin, E., Saelens, B., Sallis, J., Frank, L. (2006). Neighborhood environment walkability scale: validity and development of a short form. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(9), 1682-1691.). Walking is the most common form of physical activity and, as a result, is the focus of considerable research (Owen et al., 2004 xClose
Owen, N., Humpel, N., Leslie, E., Bauman, A., Sallis, J. (2004). Understanding environmental influences on walking: Review and research agenda. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27(1), 67-76.). Neighborhood walkability can be measured subjectively through residents’ perceptions or objectively through environmental audits, or for some features, geographic information system databases (Pikora et al., 2002 xClose
Pikora, T., Bull, F., Jamrozik, K., Knuiman, M., Giles-Corti, B., Donovan, R. (2002). Developing a reliable audit instrument to measure the physical environment for physical activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(3), 187-94.; Hoehner et al., 2005 xClose
Hoehner, C., Ramirez, L., Elliot, M., Handy, S., Brownson, R. (2005). Perceived and objective environmental measures and physical activity among urban adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(2S2), 105-116.; Day et al., 2006 xClose
Day, K., Boarnet, M., Alfonzo, M., Forsyth, A. (2006). The Irvine-Minnesota inventory to measure built environments: development. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,30(2), 144-52.). See reviews by Owen et al. (2004) xClose
Owen, N., Humpel, N., Leslie, E., Bauman, A., Sallis, J. (2004). Understanding environmental influences on walking: Review and research agenda. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27(1), 67-76. and Humpel et al. (2002) xClose
Humpel, N., Owen, N., Leslie, E. (2002). Environmental factors associated with adults’ participation in physical activity: A review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 22(3), 188-199. for summaries of recent research on physical activity and physical environments.
Measuring the built environment is complex because of the large number of dimensions that could be assessed and because different features of the environment vary in importance by behavior. In a study of walking for transportation and recreation, Hoehner et al. (2005) xClose
Hoehner, C., Ramirez, L., Elliot, M., Handy, S., Brownson, R. (2005). Perceived and objective environmental measures and physical activity among urban adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(2S2), 105-116. found that neighborhood features associated with walking for transportation differed from those associated with walking for recreation.
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