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The literature shows single-use, low-density land development and disconnected street networks to be positively associated with auto dependence and negatively associated with walking and transit use. These factors in turn appear to affect health by influencing physical activity, obesity, and emissions of air pollutants. We evaluated the association between a single index of walkability that incorporated land use mix, street connectivity, net residential density, and retail floor area ratios, with health-related outcomes in King County, Washington. We found a 5% increase in walkability to be associated with a per capita 32.1% increase in time spent in physically active travel, a 0.23-point reduction in body mass index, 6.5% fewer vehicle miles traveled, 5.6% fewer grams of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emitted, and 5.5% fewer grams of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted. These results connect development patterns with factors that affect several prevalent chronic diseases.

The purpose of this study was to examine gender and ethnic differences in physical activity in a bi-ethnic cohort of 10 and 11 year-old children. The 228 youth were from low-to-middle socioeconomic status families recruited to participate in the longitudinal San Diego SCAN project (Studies of Children's Activity and Nutrition). Trained assessors administered the 7-day physical activity recall (PAR) to 103 Anglo-American (55 boys, 48 girls) and 125 Mexican-American children (59 boys; 66 girls) on two occasions, approximately six months apart. Two-way ANOVAS (gender x ethnicity) revealed Mexican-American children expended less energy than Anglo children on both week days (p<0.0002) and weekends (p<0.02), had fewer hours weekly of moderate (p<0.02) and hard (p<0.0001) physical activities, and engaged continuously in fewer activities for 15 minutes or more (p<0.006). Boys expended relatively more energy than girls on both week days (p<0.0005) and weekends (p<0.0002) and reported more weekly hours of moderate (p<0.03) and very hard physical activity (p<0.0001). Overall, Mexican American boys were 93.6% as active as Anglo boys, while Anglo girls and Mexican American girls were 93.4%, and 89.6% as active as Anglo boys, respectively. Based on these and other findings, female and Mexican-American youth should be given high priority for physical activity interventions.

PURPOSE Recent studies have shown the relation of the built environment to physical activity levels. Urban planning and transportation studies demonstrate “walkability” factors, such as residential density, land use mix, and street connectivity, are associated with active transportation. Health researchers have reported connections between active recreation and environmental factors such as access to activity related facilities. This study aimed to investigate the association of environmental factors from both fields with physical activity for multiple purposes METHODS Adults (n=1285) were randomly recruited from neighborhoods in Seattle, WA that varied on walkability and income. Perceived environment was assessed with the validated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Survey. Self-reported minutes during the past week of walking and cycling for transportation and total leisure time activity (walking for recreation and moderate and vigorous leisure time activities) were assessed separately with the validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Separate linear regression models investigated the relationship between different built environment characteristics and active recreation or transportation, adjusting for age, gender and education. RESULTS The strongest associations with walking and biking for transportation were with perceived land use mix—access (beta=.26, p <.001), residential density (beta=.23, p <.001), street connectivity (beta=.23, p <.001) and land use mix—diversity (beta=.22, p <.001).The strongest associations with leisure time physical activity were perceived availability of recreation facilities (beta=.15, p <.001), neighborhood aesthetics (beta=.12, p <.001), land use mix–diversity (beta=.10, p <.001) and availability of local conveniences such as stores (beta=.10, p <.001). CONCLUSIONS Different characteristics of the built environment seem to facilitate physical activity for different purposes. Thus, a variety of policy changes may be needed to increase physical activity across several domains. Researchers from multiple fields need to collaborate on studies of the built environment and physical activity.

Little is known about the movement proficiency of young children and how it may affect physical activity (PA) participation later in life. An improved understanding of motor skill development in ethnically diverse young children may help design programs tailored to meet the needs of subgroups of children. We assessed the relationship of motor skill proficiency of a bi-ethnic cohort of 207 young children and their habitual PA in early adolescence. The skinfolds (triceps, subscapular) and three motor skills (balancing, catching, hopping) of 89 Anglo-American (51 boys, 38 girls) and 118 Mexican-American (53 boys, 65 girls) children were measured in the child's home at ages 4, 5, and 6. Two-week, test-retest reliabilities were r = 0.77, 0.78, and 0.62 for hopping, catching, and balancing, respectively. At age 12, skinfold and hopping tests were administered again, along with the 7-day Physical Activity Recall (PAR). PAR was administered by interviewers on two occasions, approximately 6 months apart. Significant ethnic differences were not found on motor skills. The only ethnic differences found were in early adolescence, when Mexican-American children participated in less overall and less vigorous physical activity and had greater skinfolds than Anglo-Americans. There was a significant negative association between skinfold thicknesses and young boys' and girls' ability to balance and young boys' as well 12-year-old girls' ability to hop. Results of stepwise multiple linear regression analyses to identify variables associated with overall (KKD) and vigorous PA (hours/week) at age 12 showed ethnicity and hopping at age 12 to be the only significant predictors of PA. The only movement skill related to PA was girls' hopping ability at age 12. It was a significant predictor of girls' overall PA, but not their vigorous PA. Ethnicity alone explained 4.5% of the variability in vigorous PA in girls (p < .03) and 12.8% of the variability in boys (p < .002). For overall PA, ethnicity alone explained 10.8% of the variability for boys (p < .003); and, with hopping score at age 12, explained 10.4% of the variability in girls (p < .004). Motor skill performance, represented by balancing, catching, and hopping, and skinfolds of children at ages 4–6 did not predict PA at age 12. Further studies involving additional motor skills and other populations are recommended to determine if enhanced movement skills in children promote habitual physical activity across the lifespan. Supported by NIH HL52449.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate age and gender differences in objectively measured physical activity (PA) in a population-based sample of students in grades 1–12. Methods Participants (185 male, 190 female) wore a CSA 7164 accelerometer for 7 consecutive days. To examine age-related trends, students were grouped as follows: grades 1–3 (N = 90), grades 4–6 (N = 91), grades 7–9 (N = 96), and grades 10–12 (N = 92). Bouts of PA and minutes spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and vigorous PA (VPA) were examined. Results Daily MVPA and VPA exhibited a significant inverse relationship with grade level, with the largest differences occurring between grades 1–3 and 4–6. Boys were more active than girls; however, for overall PA, the magnitudes of the gender differences were modest. Participation in continuous 20-min bouts of PA was low to nonexistent. Conclusion Our results support the notion that PA declines rapidly during childhood and adolescence and that accelerometers are feasible alternatives to self-report methods in moderately sized population-level surveillance studies.

Cognitive activities influence the rate and direction of eye movements, but the effect of various levels of eye activity on cognition has not been tested.

The interrelationship among health behaviors are not clearly understood. We examined health risk behaviors and their relationship to various types of physical activity in an ethnically diverse group of 576 men and women (mean age 24.5±2 yr) at a large urban university. Measures of risk behaviors were obtained by questionnaire, while physical activity was assessed by telephone interview using the Blair Seven Day Recall. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether health risk behaviors of men and women were associated with physical activity after adjusting for potential demographic confounders, including ethnic status, marital status or employment status. Nineteen risk behavior items were factor analyzed, yielding five risk behavior factors, including tobacco use, drinking and driving, eating fatty foods, lack of healthy foods, and unsafe sex risk scales for men and for women. For men, the regression analyses demonstrated a relationship between physical activity and eating healthy foods (r=0.24, p<0.05), but no association with other risk behaviors, nor was there a relationship between demographic confounders and physical activity. For women, total energy expenditure was related to eating fewer fatty foods (r=0.15), while engaging in vigorous physical activity was associated with eating more healthy foods(r=0.14). Unmarried women were more likely to engage in physical activity than married women (r=0.13), but this finding was not present for men. In addition, European American women participated in more vigorous physical activity than did all other ethnic groups (r=0.13, p<0.01). Physical activity was not strongly related to other health behaviors in this sample of college seniors. Further examination of these relationships is needed to help health promotion professionals design interventions for specific populations.