Does outdoor physical activity in st. louis, Missouri, differ by neighborhood socio-economic status?

Introduction: Abundant evidence shows regular physical activity (PA) and time outdoors are effective strategies for preventing obesity and stress in people of all ages. Characteristics of neighborhood environments are a common barrier to PA. The present project analyzes existing, online public web data feeds to assess differences in outdoor PA by neighborhood (census tracts) socio-economic status (SES) in St. Louis, MO.

Methods: We are analyzing participant-defined PA routes submitted by users of MapMyRun.com. This website enables participants to track their walking and running routes online, by uploading data from a GPS navigation device. We are visually illustrating the routes using Geographic Information Systems and overlaying routes with indicators of neighborhood SES to examine spatial access and use of parklands and public infrastructure (i.e., sidewalks) for outdoor PA.

Results: Pending results from this study can improve technical capability in measuring rates of PA by identifying neighborhood preferences for outdoor walking and running. This can inform land use policy decisions, particularly in inaccessible neighborhood environments, which ought to be structured in ways that can provide residents with resources and opportunities to easily incorporate PA into daily routines.

Conclusions: We present a novel effort combining expertise of researchers in urban planning, public health, and communication technology by using inexpensive, unobtrusive, and publicly available web data feeds (i.e., crowd-sourcing) to evaluate neighborhood PA. Understanding neighborhood factors that influence PA have broader urban design and public health implications, especially for vulnerable populations living in neighborhoods with limited or no accessibility to outdoor PA resources.