Association of Community Walk Score with Chinese Seniors’ Physical Activity and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Improving community walkability can encourage older adults to walk, which is beneficial for enhancing their physical activity level (PAL) and keeping healthy. The first purpose of this study was to formulate an optimized community Walk Score measurement system from the perspective of Chinese seniors. It will be optimized from the aspects such as community service facility selection, weight determination, and distance decay function calculation. The second purpose was to verify its validity by exploring the correlation between Walk Score and subjective/objective community environment variables based on Spearman correlation analysis and the ANOVA method. The third purpose was to examine the relationship between Walk Score and Chinese seniors’ PAL and health outcomes by means of ordered/binary logistic regression. The results show the following: (1) Walk Scores are significantly correlated with partial objective environmental variables. (2) Walk Score was related to older adults’ physical activity level. (3) There was no significant relationship between Walk Score and two health outcomes. Walk Score can provide a supporting basis for urban renewal, older-community renovation, age-friendly community planning and design, and public health practitioners or policymakers.

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