Presented by Darren Mayne at the 2016 45 and Up Study Collaborators' Meeting.

1. THE GEOGRAPHY OF
WALKING IN SYDNEY
The Contribution of Area-level Walkability to Geographic
Variation in Physical Activity: A Spatial Analysis of 45 and Up
Study Participants Living in Sydney
Mr Darren Mayne
Associate Professor Geoff Morgan
Professor Adrian Bauman

2. Overview
• Linking to environmental exposures
• PhD research into walkability
• Future opportunities

3. Locations simulated from counts of respondents within postal areas

4. PhD Research
• Contribution of walkability to geographic
variation in population-levels of:
─ Moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA)
 Sufficient walking to improve health
─ Overweight and obesity
─ Psychosocial distress

5. Walking and Walkability
• Moderate-intensity walking used to
increase population levels of MVPA
• Walkability refers to capacity of built
environments to promote walking
• Residents more likely to walk in high
versus low walk neighbourhoods

6. Policy and planning relevance
• Walkability evidence is “sufficiently robust”
for planning activities
• Infrastructure upgrades & developments
• Evidence derived at micro-levels but used
for regional planning
• Is it valid for cross-level action? (e.g. A Plan
for Growing Sydney)

7. Research Questions
1. Is postal area prevalence of walking
related to walkability in Sydney?
2. Is postal area prevalence of walking
spatially structured in Sydney?
3. If yes, does postal area walkability
explain any of this variation?

9. Disease mapping
• Bayesian spatial statistical method
• Used to “smooth” risk and prevalence maps
• Map variation split into spatial and non-spatial
factors
• Can quantify the contributions of explanatory
variables to spatial and non-spatial variation

10. Design
• Ecological analysis in Sydney Statistical District
─ 2006 Census Postal Areas (n=260)
─ 95,837 baseline participants
• Adjusted for person and area-level factors
• Outcome: Prevalence of walking
• Study factor: Sydney Walkability Index (SWI)
• Covariates: individual factors and postal-area IRSD

11. 1.03
1.07
1.20
0.5
1
1.5
Low Low-medium Medium-high High
PrevalenceRatio
Walkability

12. Prevalence Ratio Statistical Significance

13. Prevalence Ratio Statistical Significance

14. Prevalence Ratio Statistical Significance

15. Prevalence Ratio Statistical Significance

16. Summary
• Walkability is associated with sufficient walking to benefit
health
• Strongest for most versus least walkable areas
• Sufficient walking to benefit health is highly spatially
structured
• Walkability accounts for 60% of geographic variation in
walking not explained by person and area-level factors

17. Research implications
• Supports use of walkability indexes for policy
and planning activities
• Disease mapping is useful for identifying
geographic areas at low or high risk
• Walkability research should account for
spatial structure in outcomes and exposures

18. Future opportunities
• Other outcomes and behaviours
• Environmental data, e.g. air quality
• Finer spatial resolutions, e.g. address
• Spatiotemporal analysis

19. Acknowledgements
Supervisors
Associate Professor Geoff Morgan Professor Adrian Bauman
Spatial SEEFs
Professor Bin Jalaludin Mr Alan Wilmore
Dr Shanley Chong Dr Margaret Rolfe
Dr Klaus Gebel Dr Ding (Melody) Ding
Professor Hilary Bambrick Dr Nectarios Rose
Special Thanks
Associate Professor Philayrath Phongsavan
This research was completed using data collected through the 45 and Up Study (www.saxinstitute.org.au). The
45 and Up Study is managed by the Sax Institute in collaboration with major partner Cancer Council NSW; and
partners: the National Heart Foundation of Australia (NSW Division); NSW Ministry of Health; NSW Government
Family & Community Services – Carers, Ageing and Disability Inclusion; and the Australian Red Cross Blood
Service. We thank the many thousands of people participating in the 45 and Up Study.