Understanding Determinants of Active Travel

Abstract

<p>Lack of physical activity participation is one of the greatest challenges facing health care providers and policy makers in Canada. Increases in health problems linked to inactive lifestyles, such as obesity, heart disease, and asthma, have led health promotion experts to engage Canadians to become more active. Despite these efforts, many Canadians remain inactive and at risk. Active travel (AT), defined in this study as walking for travel, is a key form of physical activity that continues to decline. This dissertation examines the decline of AT and role the individual, physical, and social environment have on AT.</p> <p>The individual environment is examined by providing evidence of how perceived barriers to walking influence the AT of population sub-groups by modeling each barrier comparing agreement versus disagreement. Results find females, senior citizens, and those with a higher body mass index identify the most barriers, while young adults, parents, those owning a driver’s license, and those owning a bus pass identify the fewest barriers.</p> <p>The physical environment is examined by providing an improved conceptualization of the built environment (BE). First, the BE-AT relationship is examined by comparing the relationship when measuring the BE using an aggregate method with a disaggregate approach of measurement. As a result, both aggregate and disaggregate BE variables are significant, but the aggregate approach hides the fact that only two of the five BE variables are significant when using the disaggregate approach. Second, the influence the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) has on the relationship between AT and the BE is investigated. The results find that the relationship between AT and the BE are influenced by scale zone effect of MAUP.</p> <p>The social environment is examined through the adoption of a conceptual framework from the physical activity literature that combines the social environment with individual and physical environments. A series of linear regression models evaluating the different components of the social environment find that only role models and neighborhood social cohesion influence AT, despite the fact that the social environment is significantly related to walking for exercise in the literature.</p>