Walk Score and Australian adults' home-based walking for transport

Rachel Cole; Peter Dunn; Ian Hunter; Neville Owen; Takemi Sugiyama

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.06.011

Walk Score and Australian adults' home-based walking for transport

Health Place. 2015 Sep:35:60-5. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.06.011. Epub 2015 Jul 24.

Authors

Rachel Cole¹, Peter Dunn², Ian Hunter³, Neville Owen⁴, Takemi Sugiyama⁵

Affiliations

¹ Cluster for Health Improvement, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: rcole@usc.edu.au.
² Cluster for Health Improvement, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia.
³ Gold Coast Local Health and Hospital Network, Queensland Department of Health, Robina, Queensland, Australia.
⁴ Behavioral Epidemiology Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; School of Population and Global Health, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ Faculty of Health, Arts & Design and Centre for Design Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia; Sansom Institute for Health Research and School of Population Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

PMID: 26209804
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.06.011

Abstract

The relationships of Walk Score, a publicly-accessible walkability assessment tool, with walking for transport to and from home were examined among a large representative sample of Australian adults aged 18-64 years (N=16,944). Residents in highly and somewhat walkable areas were twice and 1.4 times more likely to accumulate 30 min of walking per day compared to those in very car-dependent neighborhoods, respectively. Mean duration of walking was also longer for participants living in highly and somewhat walkable areas compared to those in very car-dependent areas. Walk Score has potential as a widely-applicable tool for identifying the walkability of local neighborhoods.

Keywords: Household travel survey; Neighborhood; Walkability; Walking for transport.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Australia
Cross-Sectional Studies
Environment Design
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Residence Characteristics*
Surveys and Questionnaires
Transportation*
Walking*
Young Adult