Association Between Perceived Urban Built Environment And Duration Of Physical Activity Among Adults In Shanghai,China

Background. With more than 260 million of the country’s citizens suffering from chronic diseases by the end of 2012 according to data from china’s ministry of health, social and economic issues associated with chronic diseases have become increasingly apparent in China. Unhealthy diet, smoking, lack of physical activity, etc. can contribute to the increase of the chronic disease. A lot of studies have found that physical activity not only has positive effects on physical health, but also can effectively reduce the incidence of chronic diseases. Neighborhood built environment may influence resident’s physical activity, which in turn, affects their health. This study aimed to investigate the associations between perceived built environment and duration of physical activity of adults in Shanghai, China.Methods.613 participants aged 18 and above were randomly selected from three neighborhoods (Zhongshan Park neighborhood in urban; Xintiandi, a historical neighborhood in the center of Shanghai; Lianhua Road neighborhood in suburban) in Shanghai.402 completed survey questionnaires were included in the analysis (65.6% out of total participants). The questionnaire was the revision of "China Health and Nutrition Survey--2011 Nutrition Survey". We collected data from November 2012 to March 2014. Analysis was conducted in May 2014 using SPSS 19.0. The descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and multivariate linear regression models were applied.Results. A moderate significance was found between neighborhoods in terms of the duration of physical activity (P= 0.084). the duration of physical activity of residents in Xintiandi was shorter than other two neighborhoods; the residents who have a higher income reported more time in physical activity; and stronger perceived on the importance of neighborhood shopping, restaurants and other places were associated with longer time for physical activity.Conclusions. In general, the perception of urban built environment attributes are found to be significantly correlated with the duration of resident’s physical activity in Shanghai. More studies need to be carried out to establish causal relationships between built environment and physical activity.