Introduction

Positive effects of walking on health has led to a growing number of studies in public health and transportation planning fields. These studies reveal the associations between socio-economic factors, built environment, and health outcomes. However, the effects of walking for various trip purposes on health have often been glossed over. We explore the effects of various trip purposes on individuals’ self-assessed health status with a focus on walking trips.

Methods

This study relies on a nationwide dataset from the US, the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data. The sample includes 125,885 adults between the ages of 18 and 64. The analyses are based on an ordered logit model that relates our variables of interest to self-assessed health status. The trip purposes are defined as: home-based work, home-based shopping, home-based recreation, home-based other and non-home-based trips.

Results

First, this study shows that walking for different trip purposes has different effects on adults’ self-assessed health scores. For instance, an additional 10-min of walking for home-based work trips increases the odds of being in a higher health outcome category by 6 percent, while this effect is smaller for home-based other trips (3 percent). Second, further examination reveals that walking for different trip purposes has distinct walking speeds and durations. Walking for home-based work trips has the fastest speeds (2.69 miles/hour), followed by walking for home-based recreational trips (2.55 miles/hour). These suggest different trip purposes may have distinct metabolic equivalents (MET) for energy expenditure estimation purposes.

Conclusions

This study shows that the benefits of walking on health mainly come from home-based walking trips. Planners and decision makers should consider diverse interventions to encourage people to walk within, to and from their neighborhoods. This study also provides a basis for using trip purpose variables as proxies for walking speeds and durations.

中文翻译：

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步行对自我评估的健康状况的影响：步行，出行目的与健康之间的联系

介绍

步行对健康的积极影响导致在公共卫生和交通规划领域的研究越来越多。这些研究揭示了社会经济因素，建筑环境和健康结果之间的关联。然而，出于各种旅行目的步行对健康的影响常常被掩盖。我们重点考察步行旅行，探讨各种旅行目的对个人自我评估的健康状况的影响。

方法

这项研究依赖于美国的全国数据集，即2017年全国家庭旅行调查（NHTS）数据。该样本包括年龄在18到64岁之间的125885名成年人。该分析基于有序logit模型，该模型将我们感兴趣的变量与自我评估的健康状况相关联。行程目的定义为：基于家庭的工作，基于家庭的购物，基于家庭的娱乐，基于家庭的其他和非基于家庭的旅行。

结果

首先，这项研究表明，出于不同的出行目的而行走对成年人的自我评估健康评分有不同的影响。例如，以家庭为基础的工作旅行额外步行10分钟，会使处于较高健康状况类别的几率增加6％，而以家庭为基础的其他旅行则这种影响较小（3％）。其次，进一步检查发现，针对不同旅行目的的步行具有不同的步行速度和持续时间。步行进行家庭工作旅行的速度最快（2.69英里/小时），其次是步行进行家庭娱乐旅行（2.55英里/小时）。这些表明，出于能源消耗估算的目的，不同的出行目的可能具有不同的代谢当量（MET）。

结论

这项研究表明，健康步行的好处主要来自家庭步行。计划者和决策者应考虑采取各种干预措施，以鼓励人们在社区内进出。这项研究也为使用旅行目的变量作为步行速度和持续时间的代理人提供了基础。