Neighborhood Walkability and Cardiometabolic Disease in Central TX

The term walkability refers to a measure of how conducive the built environment is to walking and can be used to predict levels of human physical activity and active travel (Frank et al., 2006) Walkability is increasingly valued for two major reasons. Firstly, walking substantially benefits the physical and mental health of people, as research has shown that walking can reduce rates of obesity (Frank et al., 2004; Giles-Corti, Macintyre, Clarkson, Pikora, & Donovan, 2003; Pucher, Buehler, Bassett, & Dannenberg, 2010), diabetes (Pucher et al., 2010), and other chronic diseases and limit the rising costs of health care (Lee & Buchner, 2008). Secondly, a walkable city promotes the balanced development of urban areas and public services, provides people with better places to live, and improves levels of neighborhood satisfaction (Lee et al., 2017). Neighborhood walkability is also significantly related to the risk for cardiometabolic disease including obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Meline, Chaix, Pannieret, et al, 2017; Chandrabose, Cerin, Mavoa, et al. 2019). A growing body of research demonstrates that the physical environment plays an important role in supporting an active lifestyle through the collective availability of activity-friendly neighborhood characteristics (i.e., walkability). Furthermore, cardiometabolic disease is more serious in vulnerable populations, while there are over 430,000 vulnerable populations in Austin, TX. Therefore, improving walkability in the Austin area can contribute to a reduction in the risk of cardiometabolic diseases within this population. The research question is whether there is an association between walkability and the rate of cardiometabolic disease in central Texas?

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $120437
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348335

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Environmentally Responsible Transportation Center for Communities of Concern

  University of Missouri Kansas City
  Kansas City, Missouri  United States  64110
• Project Managers:

  Kline, Robin

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas State University, San Marcos

  JCK Building, Suite 489
  San Marcos, TX  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Wang, Tiankai

• Start Date: 20230631
• Expected Completion Date: 20230531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cardiovascular diseases; Diseases and medical conditions; Neighborhoods; Walkability
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Environment; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01895597
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Environmentally Responsible Transportation Center for Communities of Concern
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348335
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 6 2023 7:15PM