School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street Room 205, Ottawa, ON, K1H8M5, Canada.
School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Room 127, Ottawa, ON, K1N 7M9, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Aug 17;18(1):1025. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5945-0.
Walkability is considered an important dimension of healthy communities. However, variable associations between measures of walkability and physical activity have been observed, particularly among older persons. Given the challenges older persons may have navigating stairs on walking routes, the presence of stairs may be an explanatory factor for these mixed associations. The purposes of this scoping review were to determine whether studies examining the relationship between walkability and physical activity included items that assessed stairs and what relationships were found.
Systematic reviews were identified by entering search terms into five database search engines. Eligibility criteria were: a) published between 2008 and 2017, b) examined the relationship between walkability and physical activity, c) included a focus on persons aged 65 years and older, and d) written in English. The full articles for all primary studies included in eligible systematic reviews were then retrieved. Duplicates were removed. Information about where the study took place, walkability measures used, types of walkability data obtained (objective and/or subjective) and questions asked about stairs were extracted from the full text articles.
Eleven systematic reviews were identified; seven were eligible. After removing duplicates, 289 primary studies remained for review. Measures of neighborhood walkability were present in 205 studies; a minority (n = 5, 2.4%) included items about stairs. No information was obtained on the structural features of the stairs.
The presence of stairs may deter older persons (and others) from walking outdoors. Standard measures to document the presence and characteristics of stairs, and sampling approaches to select stairs for assessment are needed. The inclusion of these measures would augment the utility and comparability of studies examining relationships between walkability and physical activity and better inform planning and policy decisions.
可步行性被认为是健康社区的一个重要维度。然而，步行性的测量与身体活动之间的关联是可变的，尤其是在老年人中。考虑到老年人在步行路线上上下楼梯可能存在困难，楼梯的存在可能是这些混合关联的一个解释因素。本研究的目的是确定研究步行性与身体活动之间关系的研究是否包含评估楼梯的项目，以及发现了哪些关系。
通过将搜索词输入五个数据库搜索引擎来确定系统评价。纳入标准为：a）发表于 2008 年至 2017 年之间，b）研究步行性与身体活动之间的关系，c）关注 65 岁及以上人群，d）用英文书写。然后检索所有纳入系统评价的原始研究的全文。去除重复项。从全文文章中提取研究地点、使用的步行性测量、获得的步行性数据类型（客观和/或主观）以及关于楼梯的问题等信息。
确定了 11 项系统评价，其中 7 项符合纳入标准。去除重复项后，仍有 289 项原始研究可供审查。205 项研究中存在邻里步行性测量；少数研究（n=5，2.4%）包含关于楼梯的项目。没有关于楼梯结构特征的信息。
楼梯的存在可能会阻止老年人（和其他人）进行户外活动。需要记录楼梯存在和特征的标准措施，以及选择楼梯进行评估的抽样方法。纳入这些措施将提高研究步行性与身体活动之间关系的效用和可比性，并为规划和决策提供更好的信息。
