Walking to Work: The Roles of Neighborhood Walkability and Socioeconomic Deprivation

BACKGROUND: There are few studies that aimed to find a relationship between transportation-related physical activity and neighborhood socioeconomic condition using a composite deprivation index. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship of neighborhood walkability and socio-economic deprivation with percentage of adults walking to work. METHODS: A walkability index and a socio-economic deprivation index were created at block group-level. The outcome variable, percentage of adults who walk to work was dichotomized as =5% of the block group walking to work as high and applied logistic regression to examine the association of walkability and socio-economic deprivation with walking to work. RESULTS: Individuals in the most walkable neighborhoods are almost 5 times more likely to walk to work than individuals in the least walkable neighborhoods (OR = 4.90, 95% CI = 2.80-8.59). After adjusting for neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, individuals in the most walkable neighborhoods are almost 3 times more likely to walk to work than individuals in the least walkable neighborhoods (OR = 2.98, 95% CI=1.62-5.49). CONCLUSIONS: Walkability (as measured by the walkability index) is a very strong indicator of walking to work even after controlling for neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage. Language: en