Is There a Relationship Between Perceived Neighborhood Contentedness and Physical Activity in Young Men and Women

• Published in: Journal of urban health Vol. 93; no. 6; pp. 940 - 952
• Main Authors: Bazaco, Michael C., Pereira, Mark A., Wisniewski, Stephen R., Zgibor, Janice C., Songer, Thomas J., Burke, Jeffrey D., Fabio, Anthony
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-12-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Community involvement; Epidemiology; Exercise; Female; Females; Health Informatics; Humans; Logistic Models; Male; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neighborhoods; Physical fitness; Public Health; Residence Characteristics; Students; Young adults; Adolescent health; Neighborhood safety; Physical activity; Epidemiology; Social cohesion
• ISSN: 1099-3460; 1468-2869
• DOI: 10.1007/s11524-016-0088-z

The relationship between perceived neighborhood contentedness and physical activity was evaluated in the Add Health study population. Wave I includes 20,745 respondents (collected between 1994 and 1995) and wave II includes 14,738 (71 %) of these same students (collected in 1996). Multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate this relationship in both wave I and wave II of the sample. Higher levels of Perceived Neighborhood Contentedness were associated with higher reports of physical activity in both males and females and in both waves. For every one-point increment in PNS, males were 1.3 times as likely to report being highly physically active than low (95 % CI 1.23–1.37) in wave 1 and 1.25 times as likely in wave 2 (95 % CI 1.17–1.33). Females were 1.17 (95 % CI 1.12–1.22) times as likely to report being highly active than low and 1.22 times as likely in wave 2 (95 % CI 1.17–1.27) with every one-point increment. PNC appears to be significantly associated with physical activity in adolescents. Involving the community in the development of intervention programs could help to raise the contentedness of adolescents in these communities.