Physical activity friendliness of neighborhoods: perceptions versus register-based geospatial data

Background: One strategy to promote physical activity involves creating environments that invite inhabitants to engage in physical activity. The physical activity-friendliness of neighborhoods is often calculated using registered-based geospatial data, but it is unknown how objective measures agree with subjective perception of the population living in that area.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the correspondence of physical activity-friendliness based geodata and individual perceptions.

Methods: Data from 3,437 respondents aged 40-80 from the Doetinchem Cohort Study were integrated with geospatial data. For the subjective measure, respondents were asked if there were any circumstances in their neighborhood making it less appealing to engage in sports and physical activities. For the objective geospatial measure, the Core Indicator for Physical Activity-Friendly Environments was used. This is a composite measure of the proximity and diversity of sports facilities, sports and playgrounds, recreational green and blue spaces, and proximity to amenities. Logistic regressions were used to assess the relationships between both variables, including interactions for age, sex, and education.

Results: A large majority of respondents (87%) evaluates their neighborhood as physical activity friendly. There is no association between the geospatial and perception measures (OR=1.01, 95%CI= 1.00-1.02). Women, higher educated, and older respondents were more likely to perceive their neighborhood more physical activity-friendly.

Conclusions: Preliminary analyses suggest that that is no correspondence between physical activity-friendliness based on geospatial data and self-perceptions. An important limitation is however, that variance was limited. In future investigations we will also assess the relationship with the walkability scale using buffer zones instead of neighborhood scores.

Practical implications: Policymakers and urban planners should be careful in only relying on geospatial data to assess the neighborhood physical activity friendliness.

Funding: This research is funded by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.