The impact of neighborhood on physical activity in the Jackson Heart Study

Physical inactivity is an independent risk factor for many diseases. Most research has focused on individual-level factors for physical activity (PA), but evidence suggests that neighborhood is also important. We examined baseline data collected between 2000 and 2004 from 5236 participants in the Jackson Heart Study to determine the effects of neighborhood on 2 types of PA: Active Living (AL), and Sports and Exercise (Sport) in an all-African American cohort. Participants were georeferenced and data from individual baseline questionnaires and US Census were analyzed using descriptive, bivariate, and multilevel models. In both types of PA, neighborhood factors had an independent and additive effect on AL and Sport. Living in an urban (p = 0.003) or neighborhood with a higher percentage of residents with less than a high school education (p < 0.001) was inversely associated with AL. There was an inverse interaction effect between individual and lower neighborhood education (p = 0.01), as well as between age and urban neighborhoods (p = 0.02) on AL. Individual level education (OR = 1.30) and per capita income (OR = 1.07) increased the odds of moderate-to-high sports. Future studies should focus on what contextual aspects of urban or less educated neighborhoods are influential in determining PA, as well as longitudinal multilevel analyses of neighborhood effects on PA.