Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Few studies have examined whether the walkability of a neighborhood is related to levels of physical activity among overweight or obese adolescents and their parents. For this study, we measured the physical activity levels of 160 overweight and obese adolescents and one of their parents using an accelerometer worn by each participant over 7-days. From each participant's home address, we found how walkable their neighborhood was and how easily they could access public transportation from a publicly available website. We found that adolescents who live in a more walkable neighborhood and could more easily access public transportation had higher levels of leisure physical activity. We also found that parents living in more walkable neighborhoods took more steps than parents that did not live in walkable neighborhoods. The findings from this study have important implications on future community design and planning.