Official neighborhood crimes and crime perception as a barrier to physical activity among Houston area adult residents
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Studies examining the relationships between official crimes, crime perception and physical activity have reported inconsistent findings. We examined the association between neighborhood crimes and crime perception with self-reported physical activity recommended levels while controlling for other factors among Houston area adult residents in 2010 and 2011. METHODS: Using the Health of Houston Survey 2010, survey-weighted Poisson regression models in Stata 13.0 were used to determine the association of self-reported physical activity recommended levels with perceived crime and official crime numbers. Models were adjusted for demographic, behavioral, health and neighborhood factors. RESULTS: There was a positive association between perceived crime and meeting physical activity recommended levels among male residents but not females. This relationship also persisted even after controlling for official crime numbers. No association was observed with the official crime numbers in the neighborhood. This non-significant relationship persisted after controlling for crime perception. CONCLUSION: The perceived crime environment and not the actual environment was associated with meeting physical activity recommended levels among Houston area residents.
Subject Area
Environmental Health|Public health
Recommended Citation
Okafor, Ngozi Bridget, "Official neighborhood crimes and crime perception as a barrier to physical activity among Houston area adult residents" (2015). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3737097.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3737097