Foster Sarah, Knuiman Matthew, Hooper Paula, Christian Hayley, Giles-Corti Billie
Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Prev Med. 2014 May;62:161-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.02.011. Epub 2014 Feb 16.
To examine the influence of fear of crime on walking for participants in a longitudinal study of residents in new suburbs.
Participants (n=485) in Perth, Australia, completed a questionnaire about three years after moving to their neighbourhood (2007-2008), and again four years later (2011-2012). Measures included fear of crime, neighbourhood perceptions and walking (min/week). Objective environmental measures were generated for each participant's neighbourhood, defined as the 1600 m road network distance from home, at each time-point. Linear regression models examined the impact of changes in fear of crime on changes in walking, with progressive adjustment for other changes in the built environment, neighbourhood perceptions and demographics.
An increase in fear of crime was associated with a decrease in residents' walking inside the local neighbourhood. For each increase in fear of crime (i.e., one level on a five-point Likert scale) total walking decreased by 22 min/week (p=0.002), recreational walking by 13 min/week (p=0.031) and transport walking by 7 min/week (p=0.064).
This study provides longitudinal evidence that changes in residents' fear of crime influence their walking behaviours. Interventions that reduce fear of crime are likely to increase walking and produce public health gains.
在一项针对新郊区居民的纵向研究中，考察犯罪恐惧对参与者步行情况的影响。
澳大利亚珀斯的参与者（n = 485）在搬至其社区约三年后（2007 - 2008年）完成了一份调查问卷，并于四年后（2011 - 2012年）再次填写。测量指标包括犯罪恐惧、社区认知和步行情况（分钟/周）。在每个时间点，为每位参与者的社区生成客观环境测量数据，社区定义为离家1600米道路网络距离范围内。线性回归模型考察了犯罪恐惧变化对步行变化的影响，并对建筑环境、社区认知和人口统计学的其他变化进行逐步调整。
犯罪恐惧的增加与居民在当地社区内步行距离的减少相关。犯罪恐惧每增加一级（即五点李克特量表上增加一个等级），总步行时间每周减少22分钟（p = 0.002），休闲步行时间每周减少13分钟（p = 0.031），交通步行时间每周减少7分钟（p = 0.064）。
本研究提供了纵向证据，表明居民犯罪恐惧的变化会影响其步行行为。减少犯罪恐惧的干预措施可能会增加步行量并带来公共健康效益。
