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Age-Related Variations in Distances Walked to and from Local Destinations: Implications for Determining Buffer Sizes
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Age-Related Variations in Distances Walked to and from Local Destinations: Implications for Determining Buffer Sizes

Rachel Cole, Akio Kubota, Masaaki Sugiyama, Neville Owen and Takemi Sugiyama
Journal of Transport & Health, Vol.14(Supplement), p.S4
International Conference on Transport and Health (ICTH), 5th (Melbourne, Australia, 04-Nov-2019–08-Nov-2019)
2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.100782
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.100782View
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Abstract

Public Health and Health Services Urban and Regional Planning Transportation and Freight Services
Background: Health benefits of physical activity are well established, with walking being a key element of public health approaches to enhancing population health. Research has found that having various destinations (transit stops, shops, services, and parks) within the local area to be important in facilitating walking. However, research on the built environment and walking has been using different geospatial boundaries within which environmental attributes are calculated (buffer sizes). Identifying appropriate buffer sizes is important to ensure environmental attributes are measured in an area where walking takes place. It is possible that appropriate buffer sizes to various destination types may vary by age. This study sought to identify the distances adults of different ages walk to/from public transit (PT) stops, shops/services, and parks. Methods: Data from the 2009-12 South-East Queensland Travel Survey, a large household travel survey, were used. The study sample consisted of 2,105 adults (18-84 years) who reported at least one home-based walking trip to/from those destinations. Participants were categorised into four age groups: younger (18-34 years), younger middle (35-49 years), older middle (50-64 years), and older (65-85 years). We reported the median (with the 80th percentile) distances walked to/from each destination category by age groups. The 80th percentile was chosen since previous studies used this value as the distance threshold of walking trips. Multilevel regression analyses examined whether the distances walked to each destination differed by age groups. Results: Participants reported 4,029 walking trips, with the median distance of 0.68 km and the 80th percentile of 1.35 km. The median walking distance (80th percentile) to/from PT stops, shops/services, and parks was 0.53 (0.95) km, 0.77 (1.50) km, and 1.15 (2.27) km, respectively. The overall median walking distance by age groups was 0.62 km for the younger, 0.67 km for younger middle, 0.79 km for older middle and 0.72 km for older groups. Regression analyses with the older middle-aged as the reference category found that older middle-aged adults walked significantly longer overall than any other age groups and walked longer to/from shops/services than older adults. Conclusions: Our findings support buffer sizes around 600 to 1200 m for studies examining environmental correlates of walking for utilitarian purposes. For recreational walking to get to natural features, a larger buffer size (e.g., 2000 m) may be suitable. We did not find consistent evidence supporting the use of different buffer sizes for different age groups.

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