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Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
b
Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Centre, Division of Psychology, Cincinnati, USA
c
School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
d
Centre for Physical Activity and Health, School of Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
e
National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Accepted 1 May 2004
Abstract
Physical attributes of local environments may inuence walking. We used a modied version of the Neighbourhood
Environment Walkability Scale to compare residents perceptions of the attributes of two neighbourhoods that differed
on measures derived from Geographic Information System databases. Residents of the high-walkable neighbourhood
rated relevant attributes of residential density, land-use mix (access and diversity) and street connectivity, consistently
higher than did residents of the low-walkable neighbourhood. Trafc safety and safety from crime attributes did not
differ. Perceived neighbourhood environment characteristics had moderate to high testretest reliabilities. Neighbourhood environment attribute ratings may be used in population surveys and other studies.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Built environment; Environmental perceptions; Walking; Public health
Introduction
There is growing interest in understanding the
inuence of attributes of the built environment on
habitual physical activity (Humpel et al., 2002; Killingsworth, 2003; Frank and Engelke, 2001; Sallis et al.,
1998). In Australian studies, Giles-Corti and Donovan
have demonstrated that having greater access to
recreational facilities is associated with an increased
Corresponding author. Cancer Prevention Research Centre,
School of Population Health, The University of Queensland,
Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia. Tel.: +61-73365-5526; fax: +61-7-3365-5540
E-mail address: e.leslie@sph.uq.edu.au (E. Leslie).
1353-8292/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2004.05.005
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Methods
The Behavioural and Social Sciences Ethics Committee of the University of Queensland approved the study.
Defining walkability
The index of walkability, based on Frank et al.
(Manuscript under review), was calculated for Census
Collection Districts (CCDs), the smallest spatial unit
dened by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS),
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229
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Survey instrument
A modied version of the NEWS (Saelens et al.,
2003a) was used to assess neighbourhood environment
characteristics with known relationships to walking
behaviour. The original survey was developed for use
in the USA and also included items on bicycle use. Some
minor wording changes were required and some items
related specically to bicycling were deleted. A copy of
the Australian survey instrument is available from the
rst author. The survey form and scoring protocols for
the original NEWS survey are available at http://
www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu/NEWS.pdf and http://
www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu/NEWSscoring.pdf, respectively.
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Results
Eighty-seven participants, with a mean age of 44.1
years completed Survey 1 (23 men; 64 women). Car
ownership was high among participants (96.5%) and
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Table 1
Test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation) and mean (standard deviation) subscale scores for high-and low-walkable
neighbourhoods
Perceived neighbourhood
environment characteristic (no.
items)
Test-retest
reliability
N 71
High-walkable (Norwood)
residents N 40; mean (SD)
0.78
0.88
0.80
0.74
0.76
0.86
0.62
0.63
2.26
4.02
3.58
3.00
3.19
2.71
2.46
3.08
(0.23)a
(0.31)a
(0.43)a
(0.41)a
(0.49)a
(0.39)c
(0.32)
(0.40)
Low-walkable (Hawthorndene)
residents N 47; mean (SD)
1.92
3.40
2.91
2.61
2.78
3.06
2.42
2.98
(0.32)
(0.40)
(0.47)
(0.49)
(0.42)
(0.25)
(0.39)
(0.44)
Conclusions
Participants perceived neighbourhood environment
characteristics were related to objectively assessed
walkability. There were statistically signicant differences in residents ratings of environment characteristics
between those living in objectively high- and lowwalkable areas for density, land-use mix, street connectivity and infrastructure for walking (all po0.001),
indicating that residents from neighbourhoods with
different characteristics do perceive these attributes
differently. The neighbourhoods were selected to differ
objectively on residential density, land-use mix, and
street connectivity, and in fact residents perceived these
differences according to their self-report. The remaining
factors of infrastructure for walking, aesthetics, trafc
safety and safety from crime were not used as the criteria
for neighbourhood selection. The different direction for
the neighbourhood-based differences in aesthetics (residents of the low-walkable neighbourhood had higher
ratings of aesthetics) is likely to be attributable to the
low-walkable area having a much bushier and hillier
topography, with more trees, shrubs and open green
spaces as well as scenic views, than did the highwalkable area.
It is interesting to note that the mean values for landuse mix and street connectivity for the high- and lowwalkable neighbourhoods in the present study were
higher, respectively, than in the study carried out in the
USA using the same measures and the same high- versus
low-walkability neighbourhood comparison methodology (Saelens et al., 2003a). This can be explained by the
fact that overall levels of metropolitan density are
somewhat higher in Australia than in most north
American regions (Newman and Kenworthy, 1991).
However, the magnitudes of the mean differences
between the high- and low- walkability neighbourhoods
on these factors between our study and that in the USA
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Table 2
Testretest reliability (Spearmans correlation) for individual items in the neighbourhood survey
Subscale
Item
Testretest reliability
Residential density
.69
.81
.64
.69
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
Walking
.68
.84
.86
.88
.73
.81
.89
.84
.65
.74
.76
.82
.80
.91
.67
.68
.74
.72
.84
.48
.70
.54
.73
.54
.64
.91
.54
.63
Street connectivity
.70
.67
.62
.72
.60
.83
.69
.50
.53
.59
.65
Aesthetics
.81
.51
.56
.61
.69
.83
Trafc safety
.47
.60
.26
.43
.53
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
proximity
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
local shops
a supermarket
a hardware store
a greengrocers
a laundry/dry cleaners
a post ofce
a library
a primary school
other schools
a book shop
a cafe
a video outlet
a pharmacy
your job
a bus or train stop
a park
natural bushland
a tness/recreation center
a sports eld
a beach
a river
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Table 2 (continued )
Subscale
Item
Testretest reliability
.71
.56
.71
.67
.63
.61
.59
Notes: N=71, All item testretest reliability values po0.01, with the exception of slow speed of trafc on nearby streets with po0.05,
, there was not enough variability in responses to evaluate reliability.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the
National Health and Medical Research Council (ID
]213114) as part of the PLACE (Physical Activity in
Localities and Community Environments) project.
Thanks to Anne Taylor and staff of the Department
of Human Services, South Australia, for conducting the
telephone recruitment of participants and to Brenda
Rossner for assistance with data collection.
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