City planning and population health: a global challenge

The built environment, neighborhood crime and constrained physical activity: An exploration of inconsistent findings

Identifying attributes of the built environment associated with health-enhancing levels of physical activity (PA) in older adults (≥65 years old) has the potential to inform interventions supporting healthy and active ageing. The aim of this study was to first systematically review and quantify findings on built environmental correlates of older adults’ PA, and second, investigate differences by type of PA and environmental attribute measurement. One hundred articles from peer-reviewed and grey literature examining built environmental attributes related to total PA met inclusion criteria and relevant information was extracted. Findings were meta-analysed and weighted by article quality and sample size and then stratified by PA and environmental measurement method. Associations (p < .05) were found in relation to 26 individual built environmental attributes across six categories (walkability, residential density/urbanisation, street connectivity, access to/availability of destinations and services, infrastructure and streetscape, and safety) and total PA and walking specifically. Reported individual- and environmental-level moderators were also examined. Positive environmental correlates of PA, ranked by strength of evidence, were: walkability (p < .001), safety from crime (p < .001), overall access to destinations and services (p < .001), recreational facilities (p < .001), parks/public open space (p = .002) and shops/commercial destinations (p = .006), greenery and aesthetically pleasing scenery (p = .004), walk-friendly infrastructure (p = .009), and access to public transport (p = .016). There were 26 individual differences in the number of significant associations when the type of PA and environmental measurement method was considered. No consistent moderating effects on the association between built environmental attributes and PA were found. Safe, walkable, and aesthetically pleasing neighbourhoods, with access to overall and specific destinations and services positively influenced older adults’ PA participation. However, when considering the environmental attributes that were sufficiently studied (i.e., in ≥5 separate findings), the strength of evidence of associations of specific categories of environment attributes with PA differed across PA and environmental measurement types. Future research should be mindful of these differences in findings and identify the underlying mechanisms. Higher quality research is also needed.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12966-017-0558-z.pdf

Built environmental correlates of older adults' total physical activity and walking: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This article reviews the literature on fear of crime of interest to the geographical and environmental disciplines After discussing definitional and methodological issues, the article focuses on accounts which link fear with the physical environment, and then on fear, social identity and exclusion It considers the significance of one area of recent research that attempts to link place and social relations through developing local ethnographies of fear The review concludes with some suggestions for building upon this work, and highlights the relevance of the geographical themes discussed to current policy debates

http://www1.geo.ntnu.edu.tw/~moise/Data/Books/Social/08%20part%20of%20theory/place,%20social%20relations.pdf

Place, social relations and the fear of crime: a review

In a continuing attempt to explain the emergence of new strategies of crime control in the UK and USA, a theory of cultural adaptation is developed. The paper argues that the political and policy shifts of recent years have been conditioned by prior changes that have occurred at the level of social structures and cultural sensibilities. A historical account of these changes is outlined, together with a characterization of the culture of high crime societies.

The Culture of High Crime Societies

The literature on fear of crime has grown rapidly in the last three decades. This paper examines the reasons for this growth and attempts to put some structure on the work to date. The inadequacies of measures of fear of crime are discussed and alternative approaches suggested. Alternative explanatory theories are compared and strategies for reducing fear reviewed.

C. Hale

Papers

Fear of crime: A review of the literature.