Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH-CDC. We would like to thank Mark Farfel, ScD, Carolyn Greene, MD, James L. Hadler, MD, MPH, Carey Maslow, PhD, Amanda Moy, MPH, Howard Alper, PhD, MS, Alice Welch, DrPH, RPh, and Margaret Millstone from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, for their thoughtful comments, guidance, and support on this SCR7 datasheet manuscript. “
“Physical activity is an important, modifiable behavior for the prevention of non-communicable chronic diseases
(WHO). Epidemiological studies have shown that physical activity is associated with reduced risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases (Bize
et al., 2007 and Warburton et al., 2006). A growing number of studies have focused on the ecological context of physical activity (Sallis et al., 2008), i.e. the influence of the residential built environment on it (Trost et al., 2002). The built environment refers to the physical form of communities (Brownson et al., 2009), which has been operationalized according to 6 dimensions: residential density, street connectivity, accessibility to services and destinations, walking and cycling facilities, esthetic quality, and safety. There has been increasing evidence that the neighborhood built environment may influence residents’ physical Ulixertinib order activity, especially on transport-related physical activity (TRPA) and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) (Fraser and Lock, 2011 and Owen et al., 2004). Chinese tuclazepam society has undergone rapid urbanization and urban sprawl, which have contributed to the decline of physical activity (Ng et al., 2009) and changes in residents’ physical activity pattern. For example,
the escalation of vehicle numbers (National Bureau of Statistics of China) is causing a reduction in traditional modes of TRPA (through walking, cycling and public transportation) in urban areas. Thus, it is critical to understand what and how built environment correlates with physical activity. Studies have been conducted in the U.S. (King et al., 2006), Australia (Humpel et al., 2002), Japan (Kondo et al., 2009), and Brazil (Hallal et al., 2010) to explore this possible relationship, yet few were carried out in China (Zhou et al., 2013). Furthermore, the demographic profile and SES (social-economic status) of the Chinese population could modify this relationships observed in other countries.