Table 1.
Summary of associations between built environmental attributes and physical activity among all studies (cross-sectional and quasi-experiments)
| N total (studies) | Recreation walking |
Transportation walking | General walking | General cycling |
Combined walk/cycle | Moderate to vigorous PA* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neighborhood characteristics | |||||||
| Street/pedestrian connectivity | 5 | o[48] | +[48] | o[57]/+[58] | +[47] | -[33] | |
| Land use mix | 6 | o[45] | +[45] | +[44,45] | +[45] | +[51,60] | o[59]/+[54] |
| Recreation land use proximity | 7 | o[45] | o[45] | o[44] | +[45] | o[60]/-[51] | o[59]/+[34,54]/-[34] |
| Non-recreational land use proximity | 10 | o[45,48] | +[45]/-[45,46,48] | o[44]/-[58] | o[45] | o[47,51,60] | o[54,59] |
| Transit proximity/access | 5 | o[39]/+[58] | +[47] | o[39,42]/+[37] | |||
| Population/residential density | 6 | +[35]/-[35] | +[35] | +[57] | o[47] | o[33,34,59] | |
| Employment/job density | 5 | o[57]/+[58] | o[47] | o[59]/-[33] | |||
| Aesthetics/variety/diversity | 2 | o[48] | o[48] | -[34] | |||
| Trails/pathways/cycle ways/sidewalk | 5 | o[31]/+[43] /-[40,41] |
o[31,41,47]/ +[28,43]/-[40] |
o[40]/+[43] /-[41] |
|||
| Parks/public open space install or improvements | 2 | +[31] | o[31] | o[38] | |||
| Pedestrian/cyclist amenities (street furniture, lighting, shading) | 3 | o[48] | o[48] | +[30] | o[59] | ||
| Traffic-related | 2 | o[48] | +[48] | o[31] | o[31] | ||
| Aggregated neighborhood characteristics | |||||||
| Walkability/pedestrian index | 4 | o[29,55]/+[50] | +[29,50,55] | +[57] | o[52] | +[55] | |
| Neighborhood type (traditional, New urbanist) | 5 | +[53] | +[53] | +[32,56] | +[49,51] | ||
| Sprawl | 1 | o[36] | o[36] |
+: studies reporting statistically significant positive association between the environmental characteristic and physical activity.
-: studies reporting statistically significant negative association between the environmental characteristic and physical activity.
o: studies reporting no statistically significant association between the environmental characteristic and physical activity.
Cross-sectional results that adjust for residential selection included only. Quasi-experimental studies: [28,30,31,33-43].
* Also included pedometer and accelerometer-determined physical activity and use of specific locations (i.e., parks or trails).