Neighborhood Impact on Physical Activity in Older Adults

描述(由申请人提供)：尽管定期体育锻炼对老年人有公认的好处，但65岁以上的成年人仍然是美国人口中最不活跃的部分。了解影响这一重要群体体力活动的因素的努力主要局限于人口和心理社会领域。虽然社区环境在影响许多健康、行为和心理社会结果方面的重要性已经被认识到，但到目前为止，还没有对客观和主观环境因素与老年人客观测量的体力活动水平之间的关系进行系统的调查。 这项观察性研究的主要目的是调查，在根据社会经济地位(SES)进行调整后，生活在有利于步行的社区的老年人是否比那些生活在不利于为交通和娱乐目的步行以及其他形式的体育活动的社区的老年人更活跃。其他令人感兴趣的问题涉及身体机能以及居住在附近的老年人比例对环境/身体活动关系的缓和作用。拟议的项目利用了NIH资助的一个正在进行的研究项目的抽样、招募和数据收集方法，该项目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体力活动水平的影响。基于人口的抽样方法将用于招募65岁以上的成年人，这些成年人居住在华盛顿州西雅图(n=600)和马里兰州巴尔的摩(n=600)这两个地区的SES水平不同的高步行社区和不适合步行社区。除了客观地测量身体环境(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、身体活动和与老年人特别相关的生活质量变量将在12个月内进行两次评估。这项研究利用了一个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，以改善社区环境特征，以促进老年人的身体活动和其他健康和生活质量结果。

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.