Associação longitudinal entre as características do ambiente construído e atividade física em adultos de 40 anos da Coorte de Nascimentos de Pelotas de 1982

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior and, when practiced regularly, promotes several benefits. However, most adults do not meet the World Health Organization's recommendations of 150 minutes of weekly PA. Among the determinants of PA is the built environment, which are physical spaces built by people, such as streets, parks, squares, sidewalks, among others. Literature has shown an association between some characteristics of the built environment and PA according to the domain of practice. However, there are still gaps in the consistency of the associations between the built environment and PA, due to the various environmental characteristics analyzed in different contexts, populations, and the predominance of cross-sectional designs. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the association of the characteristics of the built environment around the residences of adults from the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort at age 30, with their levels of leisure-time, commuting, and total PA at age 40. The study has a longitudinal design, including adults followed at age 30 and 40. The participants’ addresses were geocoded, and the built environment was analyzed around the residences in a 500m buffer. The environmental variables assessed included population density, income of the census, public lighting, sidewalks, curbs, garbage, trees, storm drains, road paving (information from the 2010 Demographic Census), bike paths, existence, quality and size of public open spaces (POS) and intersections of four street or plus (based on POS’s audits and Geographic Information System). Leisure-time PA and commuting were collected using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) by accelerometry. Associations were estimated by linear and logistic regression, adopting a significant level of 5%. Interaction was assessed using the national economic indicator. The analytical sample consisted of 1906 individuals. Negative associations were found between lower walkability and practicing some leisure-time PA (adjusted: OR=0,92; CI95%= 0,85; 0,99; p=0,026). On the other hand, POS with regular and good quality and intermediate area were negatively associated with MVPA, lower mean geometric 14% and 16%, respectively, in relation to those who did not have presence of POS. There is also evidence that some associations of the build environment with PA are different according to socioeconomic level with association specifics in the intermediate group. The other environmental characteristics were not associated with leisure-time PA, commuting or total PA. Thus, our results suggest only the characteristics of the built environment, assessed in isolation and with a large temporal difference do not directly influence PA of middleaged adults.