Association between physical activity and neighborhood quality in downtown São Paulo

• Grant number: 12/00596-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2012
• End date: October 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Manoel Carlos Sampaio de Almeida Ribeiro
• Grantee: Fernanda Xavier Piovesan
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo (FCMSCSP). Fundação Arnaldo Vieira de Carvalho. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

A sedentary lifestyle can be placed in the top 10 causes of death worldwide. This happens because physical activity is important to reduce the risk of certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes mellitus, and ischemic heart disease, and more than half of the world's population is considered inactive. The reasons for such inactivity are many and among them is the built environment, which may interfere with the walkability. Walking is often recommended because it is a natural, practical, and inexpensive form of exercise. Purpose. To study the association between physical activity level, with emphasis on walking, and the quality of the neighborhood, considering both the social and physical environment in downtown São Paulo. Methods. Data will be collected from the study "Autoavaliação do Estado de Saúde e Qualidade da Vizinhança dos Moradores da área central do município de São Paulo", the survey "Desigualdades Sociais no Estado de Saúde e no Acesso a Serviços para Grupos com Diferentes Graus de Vulnerabilidade e Exclusão Social vivendo no Centro de São Paulo" and the Google Street View program. The dependent variables are the prevalence of active people and the amount of walking time, and the independent variables are sex, age, income, education, terrain, and traffic in streets and sidewalks. In this study will be performed univariate and multivariate logistic regressions, with the calculation of confidence intervals for all of them.(AU)