Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
Using MCA to Explore Culture Sensitive Factors in Environment That Influence Walking for Transportation in Taiwan
Yiing-Mei Liou, PhD, RN1, Yu-Jen Chang, MS, RN2, Huey June Chen, MS, RN1, Lu-Chuan Chang, MS, RN1, and Wen-Hui Hsu, BS1. (1) Institute of Community Health Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, (2) Department of Nursing, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| Learning Objective #1: understand the relationships between the neighborhood environment and walking for transportation in Taiwan |
| Learning Objective #2: develop health promotion strategies of walking based on well understanding of walking for transportation characteristics in local culture |
Background: Walking for transportation, reported as the highest variation of physical activity in previous research in Taiwan, has implied that it can be easily changed and promoted in developed countries.
Objective: To probe the relationships between the neighborhood environment and walking for transportation in Taiwan.
Method: Random sampled 147 walkable adults (mean age = 38.9 years) participated in this study. Self-administered International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Taiwan long form and Neighborhood Quality of Life Study was used to collect data.
Result: The mean minute of walking for transportation per day was 20.2, about 23.9% of walking minutes for all-purpose. Males took more time (23.3 min/day) to walk for transportation than females (16.9). People less than 50 years old spent 20 minutes less per day than the others. However, people over 65 years old engaged the most time in walking for transportation across ages (28.2). Compared with others, persons completing graduate school and over would most likely engage in walking for transportation (31.3). As for occupational differences, students took the most time in transportation walking (32.2); while white-collar worker such as sales, clerks, and mechanics spent least (7.9).
Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) was applied to identify the more important environment factors by model establishment. The result revealed that walking for transportation was strong associated with the crime rate in the neighborhood, safe feeling of crosswalks, the accessibility of ceiling sidewalk in the first floor of house, walking distance of post office from home, and the presence of toning devices in home, yard, or apartment complex.
Conclusion: The policy makers should encourage people to walk more, especially for females, people under 50 years old and white-collar workers with low grade. The efforts to improve security or physical environment such as sidewalk and community will be valuable and match with local culture.