Neighbourhood vitality and physical activity among the elderly: The role of walkable environments on active ageing in Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

This study investigated whether neighbourhood vitality and walkability were associated with active ageing of the elderly. Immobility, activity engagement and physical activity were explored in relation with age, gender and walkability of the built environment. Number of trips per day and minutes spent on walking by the elderly were extracted from a broad travel survey with more than 12,000 CATI interviews and were compared across vital and non-vital urban environments. Results highlight the importance of vital environments for elderly active mobility as subpopulations residing in highly walkable neighbourhoods undertook more trips and spent more minutes walking than their counterparts. The results also suggest that the built environment has different effects in terms of gender, as elderly men were more susceptible to urban vitality than elderly women.

Keywords: Active ageing; Active mobility; Neighbourhood vitality; Physical activity; Spain.