Neighborhood Impact on Physical Activity in Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管老年人定期体育活动的好处是公认的，但65岁以上的成年人仍然是美国人口中最不活跃的群体。努力了解影响这一重要群体身体活动的因素主要限于人口统计学和社会心理学领域。虽然邻里环境在影响健康，行为和心理社会结果的主机的重要性已被认可，迄今为止，没有系统的调查之间的关系，客观和主观的环境因素和客观测量的体力活动水平的老年人已经进行。 这项观察性研究的主要目的是调查居住在有利于步行的社区的老年人在调整社会经济地位（SES）后，是否比居住在不利于步行的社区的老年人更活跃，以便于交通和娱乐目的以及其他形式的身体活动。其他感兴趣的问题涉及身体功能的调节作用，以及居住在附近的老年人的比例，对环境/身体活动的关系。拟议的项目利用了正在进行的NIH资助的研究项目的采样，招募和数据收集方法，旨在整合公共卫生和城市规划框架，研究环境因素对年轻人身体活动水平的影响。将使用基于人群的抽样方法招募居住在两个地区（华盛顿州西雅图（n = 600）和马里兰州巴尔的摩（n = 600））不同SES水平的高步行性社区和低步行性社区的65岁以上成年人。除了客观测量的物理环境（使用地理信息系统）和身体活动水平（使用加速度计），自我报告的邻里环境，身体活动和生活质量变量的特别相关的老年人将在12个月内进行两次评估。这项研究利用了多学科团队的专业知识，将提供重要的概念和公共卫生信息，这些信息可以导致基于经验的建议，用于修改社区环境特征，以促进老年人的身体活动和其他健康和生活质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the recognized benefits of regular physical activity for older adults, adults over the age of 65 years remain among the most inactive segments of the U.S. population. Efforts to understand the factors influencing physical activity in this important group have been limited primarily to demographic and psychosocial domains. Although the importance of the neighborhood environment in influencing a host of health, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes has been recognized, to date, no systematic investigation of the relationship between objective and subjective environmental factors and objectively measured physical activity levels among older adults has been undertaken. The primary objective of this observational study is to investigate whether seniors living in neighborhoods conducive to walking are more physically active, after adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES), than those living in neighborhoods less conducive to walking for transportation and recreational purposes as well as other forms of physical activity. Additional questions of interest concern the moderating effects of physical function, as well as the proportion of seniors living nearby, on the environment/physical activity relationship. The proposed project takes advantage of the sampling, recruitment, and data collection methods of an ongoing NIH-funded research project aimed at integrating public health and urban planning frameworks in studying the impacts of environmental factors on physical activity levels in younger adults. Population-based sampling methods will be used to recruit adults over 65 years of age living in high walkable versus less walkable neighborhoods of varying SES levels in two regions, Seattle, WA (n = 600) and Baltimore, MD (n = 600). In addition to objectively measured physical environment (using GIS) and physical activity levels (using accelerometry), self-reported neighborhood environment, physical activity, and quality of life variables of particular relevance to older adults will be assessed twice during a 12-month period. This study, which takes advantage of the expertise of a multi-disciplinary team, will contribute important conceptual and public health information that can lead to empirically based recommendations for modifying neighborhood environment characteristics to promote physical activity and other health and quality of life outcomes among older adults.