Walking in Sydney: trends in prevalence by geographic areas using information from transport and health surveillance systems

Monitoring the population prevalence of walking is important to both the health and transportation sectors. To determine population trends in walking over the past decade, and whether these trends differed by geographical area, we examined population trends from surveillance systems of both sectors in the urban and peri-urban regions of Sydney Greater Metropolitan, Australia. Methods: We used serial cross-sectional survey questions on walking in the past week from the Health Department׳s annual New South Wales (NSW) Adult Population Health Surveys (Health Survey), and pooled estimates by 5-year periods of walking using 24-hour trips data from the Transport Department׳s NSW Household Travel Survey (Travel Survey). Samples included six regions in the health surveys and 42 local areas within these regions in the travel survey. Data were compared using population indicators of 'any walking' (Health Survey: ≥1 walk/week; Travel Survey: ≥1 walk trip/day), ׳sufficient walking׳ for meeting health recommendations (Health Survey: ≥150 minutes/week; Travel Survey: ≥30 minutes/day), and 'regular walking' (Health Survey; ≥150 mins/week & ≥5 times/week; Travel Survey: ≥30 mins/day by trips ≥10 minutes duration). Results: Between 2002 and 2012, in the Health Survey, rates of any walking (from 79.2 to 83.1%), sufficient walking (from 36.8% to 45.3%) and regular walking (from 30.4% to 38.4) all significantly increased. Urban and peri-urban areas showed similar trends. The Travel Survey showed significant increases in any walking and in regular walking in only 57% and 17% of the local areas. Substantial differences in regular walking were noted between local areas and regions in both surveillance systems, and these differences remained. Conclusion: trend data are not identical at the local level, but are concordant in many areas. This approach of incorporating data from different sectors identifies areas where transport planning and health promotion needs might intersect and provides benchmarks with respect to the State plan, which has explicit policy indicators on active travel.