Pnina O. Plaut

Understanding the relationships between the physical environment and physical activity in older adults: A systematic review of qualitative studies

BackgroundWhile physical activity (PA) provides many physical, social, and mental health benefits for older adults, they are the least physically active age group. Ecological models highlight the importance of the physical environment in promoting PA. However, results of previous quantitative research revealed inconsistencies in environmental correlates of older adults’ PA that may be explained by methodological issues. Qualitative studies can inform and complement quantitative research on environment-PA relationships by providing insight into how and why the environment influences participants’ PA behaviors. The current study aimed to provide a systematic review of qualitative studies exploring the potential impact of the physical environment on older adults’ PA behaviors.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in databases of various disciplines, including: health, architecture and urban planning, transportation, and interdisciplinary databases. From 3,047 articles identified in the physical activity, initial search, 31 articles published from 1996 to 2012 met all inclusion criteria. An inductive content analysis was performed on the extracted findings to identify emerging environmental elements related to older adults’ PA. The identified environmental elements were then grouped by study methodologies [indoor interviews (individual or focus groups) vs spatial methods (photo-voice, observations, walk-along interviews)].ResultsThis review provides detailed information about environmental factors that potentially influence older adults’ PA behaviors. These factors were categorized into five themes: pedestrian infrastructure, safety, access to amenities, aesthetics, and environmental conditions. Environmental factors especially relevant to older adults (i.e., access to facilities, green open spaces and rest areas) tended to emerge more frequently in studies that combined interviews with spatial qualitative methods.ConclusionsFindings showed that qualitative research can provide in-depth information on environmental elements that influence older adults’ PA. Future qualitative studies on the physical environment and older adults’ PA would benefit from combining interviews with more spatially-oriented methods. Multidisciplinary mixed-methods studies are recommended to establish quantitative relationships complemented with in-depth qualitative information.

Transportation-communications relationships in industry

Relationships between transportation and communications have generally been analyzed at the household level. Yet most transportation and communications services are used by industry. This paper examines the relationship between uses of transportation and communications services by industry in the countries of the European Community. It is shown that a clear pattern of complementarity appears to hold for such industrial uses throughout Western Europe. The complementarity appears to hold for all subsectors of the transportation service industry.

The Characteristics and Tradeoffs of Households Choosing to Live in Gated Communities

Gated communities have grown in importance in the United States in recent years and they are also common in many other countries. Relatively little is known about the factors and tradeoffs associated with the preferences of households to live in such communities. There is a popular perception of gated communities being refuges for higher income and higher status predominantly white households in the United States but this appears to be largely incorrect. The profile of those who live in gated communities is the focus of this study. Homeowners living in gated communities are analyzed separately from renters, and are compared with those living in nongated communities, with special attention to location within the metropolitan statistical area and housing features. The factors that affect their respective decisions appear to be different. Residence in gated communities is ‘purchased’ both in the form of higher prices and rents, but also in the form of trading off some housing features, such as settling for smaller units with fewer bedrooms, for ‘gatedness’. The role of other factors in affecting likelihood of living in gated communities, including income, education, and some other factors associated with socioeconomic status, is explored using logit analysis. Those living in the urban subregions of the metropolitan statistical areas (the central city and secondary cities) have the highest likelihood of choosing gated communities, other things being equal. Somewhat surprisingly, people do not seem to be choosing gated communities in order to shorten their commuting distances. Despite the media stereotypes, racial minorities are often over-represented in gated communities for all minority groups for both forms of housing tenure (ownership and renting). Income disparities between whites and blacks are generally narrower within gated communities than they are outside of them. Within racial groups, income diversity, as measured by standard deviations, is greater in gated communities than outside of them, indicating greater heterogeneity.

Shopping Travel Behaviors in an Era of Rapid Economic Transition: Evidence from Newly Built Malls in Prague, Czech Republic

The rapid transformation in both the location and type of retail provision in the Prague metropolitan area, Czech Republic, between 1997 and 2001 offers a unique opportunity for examining the relationship between land use and shopping travel behavior. The case of Prague is unique. Although the Czech capital has the compact form and transit-rich environment sought by many planners, after rates of motorization rose steadily in the early 1990s foreign developers began constructing shopping malls on the citys fringe in 1997. Although retail provision was being remade on highway-adjacent locations outside the traditional central business district, there were few changes in Prague residential and employment locations. Thus, the shift in shopping land use occurred in relative isolation. Shopping travel behavior before and after the introduction of the fringe shopping malls is examined by using research based on 1,649 surveys collected in four new malls in 2001. Mall visitors reported current demographic information and mall travel behavior as well as their travel habits for the same trip purposes before the introduction of the surveyed mall. The before-and-after data demonstrate how shopping travel behavior has changed with the changing retail land uses. Specifically, shifts in three travel behavior variables (trip frequency, shopping duration, and mode split) disaggregated by key demographic characteristics (age, gender, income, car ownership, and household size), are analyzed. Several striking shifts are apparent: people shop less often and for longer periods of time and are less likely to walk to shopping locations.

Shopping Trip-Chaining Behavior at Malls in a Transitional Economy

Cities in transitional economies are experiencing a proliferation of newly constructed suburban shopping malls. Curiously, travel habits to these new malls are quite distinct from those generally experienced in North America, particularly regarding trip chaining. While most weekday afternoon mall trips in developed nations are chained, few are linked in countries with transitional economies. Because trip chaining is a behavior strongly associated with sprawl, this research seeks to examine the nascent trip chaining at the four new peripheral malls in Prague, Czech Republic, to identify factors that contribute to such travel patterns. This research explores two types of trip chaining among a survey sample of 782 people. External trip chaining considers activities made before and after the mall stop, while internal trip chaining considers activities made during the mall stop. Overall, only 18.1% of patrons made external trip chains, while 42.3% made internal trip chains. This general finding suggests that, in the absence of many retail alternatives, mall patrons in transitional economies may substitute internal trip chaining for the external trip chaining that characterizes travel patterns in North America. This research demonstrates that male gender, high income, working age, small household size, ownership of multiple cars, suburban home location, few additional car passengers, weekly mall trip frequency, a long access travel time, poor mall accessibility, and a short mall activity duration are tied to higher rates of external trip chaining. Concomitantly, female gender, high income, working age, large household size, private vehicle use, additional passengers in the car, mall trip frequency, poor mall accessibility, grocery shopping, high mall expenditure, and long mall activity duration are tied to higher rates of internal trip chaining. These findings suggest that land use policies may be effective in limiting the growth of external trip chaining and maximizing internal trip chaining among suburban mall patrons.

The Economics of Housing Savings Plans

Housing Savings Plans (HSP) are contractual savings products in which a household is granted a mortgage at preferential terms (or option for such) in exchange for accumulating savings in the plan and in the institution offering it. As such, they represent a bundle of savings and borrowing financial services. While such plans are common in some countries, the reasons for their use have not been fully explored. In some cases, HSPs are used because financial markets and institutions have not reached sufficient levels of development to attract savings or raise capital for housing finance, and in other cases, tax and subsidy incentives may be at play. Here, we ask under which circumstances households and financial institutions will voluntarily contract to participate in HSPs even in advanced capital markets and in the absence of tax/subsidy incentives. We argue that the HSPs may be chosen by households because of their hedging qualities. We model HSPs and show how changes in variables affect the willingness of households to join the HSP and the characteristics of any HSP chosen.

Is the Grass Always Greener in Suburban Neighborhoods? Outdoors Play in Suburban and Inner-City Neighborhoods

Children’s outdoors play (OP) is an important source of physical activity that has been decreasing in recent years due to changes in neighborhood design, parent safety concerns and child sedentary leisure. However, few studies examined such determinants from children’s perspectives. This study explores environmental and socio-cultural aspects of children’s OP using a qualitative and quantitative approach. Data was collected in two phases: (1) a survey on OP and related variables among 5th and 6th graders (10–12 years old) (n = 573); and (2) a mapping activity and semi-structured interview among a subsample of the survey (n = 80). The most common locations for routine OP were parks (40%) followed by public facilities (26%) and streets (17%). OP was significantly associated with perceived environment, independent mobility and gender, but not with neighborhood type. Inner-city participants reported a higher number and greater variety of OP areas (23 vs. 14). Three main barriers of OP were identified—low quality and poorly maintained play areas, other people in public spaces, and social norms that undermine OP. Thus, in order to encourage routine OP, environmental change to create safe and attractive OP settings should be accompanied by community interventions to enhance social norms that are supportive of OP.

Getting to Know a Place: Built Environment Walkability and Children’s Spatial Representation of Their Home-School (h–s) Route

The literature on environmental walkability to date has mainly focused on walking and related health outcomes. While previous studies suggest associations between walking and spatial knowledge, the associations between environmental walkability and spatial knowledge is yet to be explored. The current study addresses this lacuna in research by exploring children’s mental representations of their home-school (h–s) route, vis-à-vis objectively measured environmental attributes along the actual routes. Ninety-two children aged 10–12 years old (5th and 6th graders) drew sketch maps depicting their h–s route and drew the actual route on a neighborhood map, in addition to completing a brief survey. h–s routes went through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, yielding an en-route walkability index and its components. Children in traditional neighborhoods outperformed in the route’s orientation and structure, but not in the richness of the drawn maps. The orientation and structure of the drawn routes was related to objectively measured walkability, density, street connectivity and commercial land-uses along h–s routes. These associations remained significant among children who walked to school, but not among those who were driven to school. These findings highlight the importance of urban form and school travel mode in acquiring navigation skills and getting to know one’s neighborhood.

Ethnic Income Disparities in Israel

This article analyses income inequality in Israel and the role of ethnicity in creating or explaining it. It shows that in spite of relatively large ‘raw’ disparities in mean incomes across the ethnic groups, when controlling for other non-ethnic factors it is not generally the case that Arabs underperform in the Israeli labour markets compared with Jews, and in some cases Arabs outperform Jews, especially for men. Returns on education also do not appear to be lower for Arabs, other things being equal. In spite of the stereotypes, Ashkenazim generally do not outperform Mizrahim, or at most do so to a very small degree. The main ‘advantaged’ ethnic group are the native-born sabra Israelis. The main ‘disadvantaged’ demographic group are recent immigrants. Somewhat surprisingly, Ethiopians do not underperform compared with other immigrants, other things being equal.

The Effects of an Urban Forest Health Intervention Program on Physical Activity, Substance Abuse, Psychosomatic Symptoms, and Life Satisfaction among Adolescents

Background: At-risk adolescents have been defined as youth who are or might be in physical, mental, or emotional danger. An Urban Forest Health Intervention Program (UFHIP) was formed at a center for at-risk adolescents in Israel, in order to promote physical activity and reduce risky behavior. Objective: To evaluate the intervention’s effect on physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, psychosomatic symptoms, and life satisfaction. Methods: From 2015 to 2016, at-risk youth were nonrandomly selected to participate in the UFHIP. Questionnaires were administered to both intervention and control groups before and after the intervention. Univariate and multivariable analyses evaluated the intervention’s effect. Results: The study participants (n = 53) showed 0.81 more sessions per week of 60 min of physical activity than did the control group (n = 23; p = 0.003). Among the intervention group, smoking frequency reduced from a mean of 2.60 (SD = 1.30) to 1.72 (SD = 1.08), whereas that in the control group increased from 3.17 (1.03) to 3.39 (1.03). In both groups, there was a reduction in alcohol consumption, with a greater change among intervention participants: −1.08 (SD = 1.30), compared with −0.09 (SD = 1.79) in the control group. Conclusions: Findings indicate that the environmental intervention was efficacious in increasing physical activity and reducing risky behaviors among youth. The effectiveness of this intervention among larger samples is warranted in future prospective studies.