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Association between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality: results of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Association between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality: results of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

Dora Chor, Leticia Oliveira Cardoso, Aline Araujo Nobre, Rosane Haerter Griep, Maria de Jesus Mendes Fonseca, Luana Giatti, Isabela Bensenor, Maria del Carmen Bisi Molina, Estela M. L. Aquino, Ana Diez-Roux, …
BMC public health, v 16(1), pp 1-11
09 Aug 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3447-5
PMID: 27506819
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3447-5View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Science & Technology
Background: The study explores associations between perceived neighbourhood characteristics, physical activity and diet quality, which in Latin America and Brazil have been scarcely studied and with inconsistent results. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 14,749 individuals who participated in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (Estudo Longitudinal de Saude do Adulto, ELSA-Brasil) baseline. The study included current and retired civil servants, aged between 35 and 74 years, from universities and research institutes in six Brazilian states. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) long form was used to characterize physical activity during leisure time and commuting; additional questions assessed how often fruit and vegetables were consumed, as a proxy for diet quality. Neighbourhood characteristics were evaluated by the "Walking Environment" and "Availability of Healthy Foods" scales originally used in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Associations were examined using multinomial logistic regression. Results: Perceiving a more walkable neighbourhood was positively associated with engaging in leisure time physical activity and doing so for longer weekly. Compared with those who saw their neighbourhood as less walkable, those who perceived it as more walkable had 1.69 (95 % CI 1.57-1.83) and 1.39 (1.28-1.52) greater odds of engaging in leisure time physical activity for more than 150 min/week or up to 150 min/week (vs. none), respectively. Perceiving a more walkable neighbourhood was also positively associated with transport-related physical activity. The same pattern was observed for diet: compared with participants who perceived healthy foods as less available in their neighbourhood, those who saw them as more available had odds 1.48 greater (1.31-1.66) of eating fruits, and 1.47 greater (1.30-1.66) of eating vegetables, more than once per day. Conclusions: Perceived walkability and neighbourhood availability of healthy food were independently associated with the practice of physical activity and diet quality, respectively, underlining the importance of neighbourhood-level public policies to changing and maintaining health-related habits.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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