Association of Walkability With Obesity in Baltimore City, Maryland

Sarah Stark Casagrande · Joel Gittelsohn · Alan B. Zonderman · Michele K. Evans · Tiffany L. Gary‐Webb

57 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Public Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Urban Transport and Accessibility Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet Urban Green Space and Health

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between walkability and obesity, we studied adults residing in Baltimore City, Maryland, in neighborhoods of varying racial and socioeconomic composition. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 3493 participants from the study Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span. We used the Pedestrian Environment Data Scan to measure neighborhood walkability in 34 neighborhoods of diverse racial and socioeconomic composition in which the study participants lived. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine walkability scores. Multilevel modeling was used to determine prevalence ratios for the association between walkability and obesity. RESULTS: Among individuals living in predominately White and high-socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods, residing in highly walkable neighborhoods was associated with a lower prevalence of obesity when compared with individuals living in poorly walkable neighborhoods, after adjusting for individual-level demographic variables (prevalence ratio-[PR] = 0.58; P = <.001 vs PR = 0.80; P = .004). Prevalence ratios were similar after controlling for the perception of crime, physical activity, and main mode of transportation. The association between walkability and obesity for individuals living in low-SES neighborhoods was not significant after accounting for main mode of transportation (PR = 0.85; P = .060). CONCLUSIONS: Future research is needed to determine how differences in associations by neighborhood characteristics may contribute to racial disparities in obesity.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 57 citations exist upstream.

References

2003Neighborhood-Based Differences in Physical Activity: An Environment Scale Evaluation 2008Built Environment Correlates of Walking 2002Environmental factors associated with adults' participation in physical activity A review 2006Inequality in the Built Environment Underlies Key Health Disparities in Physical Activity and Obesity 2005Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form 1999Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination 2010Race, socioeconomic status, and health: Complexities, ongoing challenges, and research opportunities 2003Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity

Cited by

2012A Review of Spatial Methods in Epidemiology, 2000–2010 2013Six Paths for the Future of Social Epidemiology 2015Change in Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Weight Gain 2012Aesthetic Amenities and Safety Hazards Associated with Walking and Bicycling for Transportation in New York City 2014GIS-based analysis of obesity and the built environment in the US

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.