The benefits of physical activity (PA) for health is well established, and include reductions in cardiometabolic risk factors and mortality rates, as well as improvements in mental health and quality of life (1-4). However, more than a quarter of adult population fails to meet the World Health Organisation’s PA guidelines (5).
European countries exhibit relatively high levels of physical inactivity, though a wide variety exists both between and within countries. Guthold et al. suggest that PA level is influenced by national, subnational, and community-level factors (5), indicating the need to explore contextual determinants of PA. Among these, built environment characteristics – such as neighbourhood walkability – play a crucial role in promoting PA. Numerous studies have reported positive associations between higher walkability in urban areas and increased PA, whether through active transportation (e.g., walking, cycling) or other forms of exercise during work and leisure time (6-10).
Walkability incorporates multiple environmental components, such as street connectivity, land use mix, residential density, public transport density, and number of parks (11, 12). Combination of multiple variables explains the impact of neighbourhood characteristics better than single-variable measures alone (12).
Patel et al. recently developed a comprehensive walkability index to a European scale, at high resolution (100 × 100 m grids), with geospatial innovations to capture multiple environmental factors. This index included seven components, including street walk length, number of street intersections, green spaces, slope, public transport stops, land use mix, and area of isochrones.
This study will utilise this walkability index to examine the association between neighbourhood walkability and physical activity behaviours among adults across various European regions.