Evaluation of the implementation of a state government community design policy aimed at increasing local walking: design issues and baseline results from RESIDE, Perth Western Australia.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the design and baseline results of an evaluation of the Western Australian government's pedestrian-friendly subdivision design code (Liveable Neighborhood (LN) Guidelines). METHODS: Baseline results (2003-2005) from a longitudinal study of people (n=1813) moving into new housing developments: 18 Liveable, 11 Hybrid and 45 Conventional (i.e., LDs, HDs and CDs respectively) are presented including usual recreational and transport-related walking undertaken within and outside the neighborhood, and 7-day pedometer steps. RESULTS: At baseline, more participants walked for recreation and transport within the neighborhood (52.6%; 36.1% respectively), than outside the neighborhood (17.7%; 13.2% respectively). Notably, only 20% of average total duration of walking (128.4 min/week (SD159.8)) was transport related and within the neighborhood. There were few differences between the groups' demographic, psychosocial and perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics, pedometer steps, or the type, amount and location of self-reported walking (p>0.05). However, asked what factors influenced their choice of housing development, more participants moving into LDs reported aspects of their new neighborhood's walkability as important (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The baseline results underscore the desirability of incorporating behavior and context-specific measures and value of longitudinal designs to enable changes in behavior, attitudes, and urban form to be monitored, while adjusting for baseline residential location preferences.

Can the impact on health of a government policy designed to create more liveable neighbourhoods be evaluated? An overview of the RESIDential Environment Project.

There is growing interest in the impact of community design on the health of residents. In 1998, the Western Australian Government began a trial of new subdivision design codes (i.e. Liveable Neighbourhoods Community Design Code) aimed at creating pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods to increase walking, cycling and public transport use. The trial provided a unique opportunity for a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of a government planning policy on residents. Nevertheless, evaluations of this kind present a number of methodological challenges in obtaining the highest quality evidence possible. This paper describes the RESIDential Environment Project's study design and discusses how various methodological challenges were overcome.

Development of a reliable measure of walking within and outside the local neighborhood: RESIDE's Neighborhood Physical Activity Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The RESIDential Environment project (RESIDE) is a longitudinal study evaluating the impact of a new residential design code on walking. OBJECTIVE: To develop a reliable measure of walking--undertaken within and outside the neighborhood--and overall physical activity. METHODS: A test-retest reliability study was undertaken (n = 82, mean age 39 years). The instrument was based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-short version) and Active Australia Survey. It measured usual frequency and duration of (1) recreational- and transport-related walking within and outside the neighborhood and (2) other vigorous and moderate physical activities. RESULTS: Reliability of recall of whether participants had walked within (k = 0.84) and outside (0.73) the neighborhood was acceptable. Similarly, recall of frequency and duration of transport and recreational-related walking within the neighborhood was excellent (ICC > or = 0.82), as was recall of transport-related walking trips outside the neighborhood (ICC > or = 0.84). Reliability for duration of recreational walking outside the neighborhood was fair to good (ICC = 0.55). The reliability of indices of total physical activity based on MET min/week (ICC = 0.82) and MET min/week dichotomized to 'sufficient' physical activity for health (kappa = 0.67) were both acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: The Neighborhood Physical Activity Questionnaire (NPAQ) is sufficiently reliable for studies examining environmental correlates of walking within the neighborhood.

Developing a reliable audit instrument to measure the physical environment for physical activity.

BACKGROUND: The physical environment plays an important role in influencing participation in physical activity, although which factors of the physical environment have the greatest effect on patterns of activity remain to be determined. We describe the development of a comprehensive instrument to measure the physical environmental factors that may influence walking and cycling in local neighborhoods and report on its reliability. METHODS: Following consultation with experts from a variety of fields and a literature search, we developed a Systematic Pedestrian and Cycling Environmental Scan (SPACES) instrument and used it to collect data over a total of 1987 kilometers of roads in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. The audit instrument is available from the first author on request. Additional environmental information was collected using desktop methods and geographic information systems (GIS) technology. We assessed inter- and intra-rater reliability of the instrument among the 16 observers who collected the data. RESULTS: The observers reported that the audit instrument was easy to use. Both inter- and intra-rater reliability of the environmental scan instrument were generally high. CONCLUSIONS: Our instrument provides a reliable, practical, and easy-to-use method for collecting detailed "street-level" data on physical environmental factors that are potential influences on walking in local neighborhoods.