Introducing urban vitality as a determinant of children's healthy mobility habits: a focus on activity engagement and physical activity

Abstract

In this study we introduce urban vitality as a determining factor for both physical activity (PA) and activity engagement in children living in Barcelona's Metropolitan Region. We compare the physical outcomes of children living in vital and non-vital areas using mobility data taken from a travel survey. Chi-square, and association tests were used to compare the health outcomes of children living in vital and non-vital areas. Specifically, we measured for activity engagement, walking for transport, minutes of PA and adequacy to World Health Organization PA recommendations. Results are stratified by age and gender and reveal how living in a vital area can produce up to 54 minutes more of PA per week, with a difference of nearly 20% in the number of outdoor activities undertaken. Neighbourhood vitality promotes healthier mobility habits, as children living in buzzing areas tend to engage in more activities and spend more minutes walking for transport.

Keywords:

• physical activity
• neighbourhood effects
• health geography
• travel survey
• children's mobility
• children physical activity

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the task of the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions have helped to improve the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Oriol Marquet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7346-5664

Carme Miralles-Guasch http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-9776

Additional information

Funding

The reported research was funded by the project ‘Everyday Mobility and proximity dynamics, an analysis form the territorial social and environmental perspective (CSO2013-42513-P)’ awarded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.