Evaluation of perceptions of physical activity related built environment among urban adults with different characteristics in Hangzhou / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the perceptions of physical activity-related built environment among urban adults in Hangzhou.Methods A face-to-face interview was conducted among the urban residents aged 25-59 years selected through multistage stratified random sampling in Hangzhou in 2012.The Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale-Abbreviated (NEWS-A) was used to assess the perception of built environment among residents,including residential building density,the diversities of stores,facilities and others,the accessibility to public service,the street connectivity,walking/cycling facilities,aesthetics,traffic safety,and public security.The multilevel logistic regression model was used to assess the demographic characteristics,BMI and other factors' influence on people' s perceptions.Results Among 1 362 local residents surveyed,no sex,martial status and occupation specific significant differences in the perception of built environment were found.After adjusting other factors,the age group 45-59 years was positively related to the score of street connectivity (OR=2.02,95％ CI1.30-3.15).The educational level of college or higher was positively associated with the score of residential building density(OR=1.97,95％CI1.29-3.00) but negatively associated with the score of facility variety(OR=0.65,95％ CI0.43-0.97).Overweight or besity was negatively related to the scores of walking/cycling ways (OR=0.67,95％CI0.48-0.95) and public security(OR=0.75,95％ CI0.57-0.99).Compared with the class Ⅰ residential area,the people in class Ⅲ residential area had lower perception scores on facility diversity (OR =0.11,95％ CI0.04-0.30),accessibility to public service (OR=0.33,95％ CI0.11-0.95),street connectivity (OR=0.30,95％ CI0.11-0.86) and traffic safety (OR=0.39,95％ CI0.17-0.91).Conclusion The perceptions of physical activity-related built environment was associated with age,educational level,BMI and residential area.The personal characteristics should be considered while performing environment intervention on physical activity.