In search of causality: a systematic review of the relationship between the built environment and physical activity among adults
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 1 January 2011
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Vol. 8 (1), 125
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-8-125
Abstract
Empirical evidence suggests that an association between the built environment and physical activity exists. This evidence is mostly derived from cross-sectional studies that do not account for other causal explanations such as neighborhood self-selection. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs can be used to isolate the effect of the built environment on physical activity, but in their absence, statistical techniques that adjust for neighborhood self-selection can be used with cross-sectional data. Previous reviews examining the built environment-physical activity relationship have not differentiated among findings based on study design. To deal with self-selection, we synthesized evidence regarding the relationship between objective measures of the built environment and physical activity by including in our review: 1) cross-sectional studies that adjust for neighborhood self-selection and 2) quasi-experiments.Keywords
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