Citation

Liao Y, Huang PH, Hsiang CY, Huang JH, Hsueh MC, Park JH. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 14(12): e14121594.

Affiliation

Institute of Convergence Bio-Health, Dong-A University, 32, Daeshingongwon-Ro, Seo-Gu, Busan 49201, Korea. jpark@dau.ac.kr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph14121594

PMID

29258241

Abstract

This study examines the cross-sectional associations between personal and perceived neighborhood environment attributes regarding walking for recreation and transportation among older Taiwanese adults. Data related to personal factors, perceived environmental factors, and time spent engaging in transportation-related and recreational walking were obtained from 1032 older adults aged 65 years and above. The data were analyzed by carrying out an adjusted binary logistic regression. After adjusting for potential confounders, two commonly perceived environmental factors, the presence of sidewalks (PS) and the presence of a destination (PD), were positively associated with 150 min of walking for recreation. Different personal and perceived environmental factors were associated with walking for recreation and transportation. These findings suggest that policy-makers and physical activity intervention designers should develop both common and individual environmental strategies in order to improve and increase awareness of the neighborhood environment to promote recreational and transportation walking behaviors among older adults.

Language: en

Keywords

Taiwan; perceived environment; physical activity