Socioeconomic status and perceptions of access and safety for physical activity

Dawn K. Wilson · Karen A. Kirtland · Barbara E. Ainsworth · Cheryl Lynn Addy

379 citations0/0 files storedAnnals of Behavioral Medicine

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 Physical Activity and Health Urban Green Space and Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Environmental factors may play an important role on influencing physical activity (PA) behaviors. PURPOSE: Perceptions of access and safety for PA were compared among residents who were stratified as low or high in socioeconomic status (SES). METHODS: Residents of a U.S. southeastern county (N = 1,194, 18-96 years of age) were contacted using a random-digit-dial method and asked about neighborhood and community environmental supports for PA. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to identify trails, sidewalks, public recreation facilities, and violent crime incidents. RESULTS: A cluster analysis identified 10 census tracts as low SES and 11 census tracts as high SES (median household income, owner-occupied houses). More African Americans (66.5%) than Whites (33.5%) were classified as living in low-SES areas. Respondents from low-SES areas also reported engaging in less PA based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American College of Sports Medicine recommendations than respondents from high-SES areas (p <.05). Respondents from low-SES (vs. high-SES) areas reported higher perceptions of neighborhood crime, unattended dogs, unpleasantness of neighborhoods, untrustworthy neighbors, and less access to public recreation facilities (ps <.05). GIS data for presence of sidewalks, recreation facilities, and crime did not support these differences in perceptions; however, respondents from low-SES (vs. high-SES) areas had substantially fewer trails. Having and using trails in one's community predicted sufficient PA and walking for 150 min/week for low-SES respondents but not for high SES respondents (ps =.05, adjusted for covariates). CONCLUSIONS: Having access to trails is an important environmental feature among low-SES communities and should be the focus of future community-based PA interventions.

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 — 379 citations exist upstream.

References

2001Environmental and Policy Determinants of Physical Activity in the United States 2002Socioeconomic Status Differences in Recreational Physical Activity Levels and Real and Perceived Access to a Supportive Physical Environment 1990Distance between homes and exercise facilities related to frequency of exercise among San Diego residents.1998Urban neighborhoods and mental health: Psychological contributions to understanding toxicity, resilience, and interventions.2003Environmental measures of physical activity supports

Cited by

2009Parks and People: An Environmental Justice Inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland 2009City structure, obesity, and environmental justice: An integrated analysis of physical and social barriers to walkable streets and park access 2009Correlates of Non-Concordance between Perceived and Objective Measures of Walkability 2007Availability of Recreational Resources and Physical Activity in Adults 2007Safe To Walk? Neighborhood Safety and Physical Activity Among Public Housing Residents 2007Personal, social and environmental determinants of educational inequalities in walking: a multilevel study 2010Effects of the Built Environment on Physical Activity of Adults Living in Rural Settings

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.