2017/06/14 by Juliane Schicketanz, Schicketanz, Juliane, Linus Grabenhenrich +3
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet #Physical Activity and Health #Urban Transport and Accessibility #childhood #neighborhood #spatial index #urban health #walkability
paper · doi:10.12854/erde-149-54
openalex publication_date 2017/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
The physical environment strongly influences physical activity in urban settings. While walkability is frequently assessed for adults, an approach for mapping the friendliness of urban environments focusing on children’s activities is not available. The aim of the presented approach was to identify supporting and limiting factors of activity friendliness in urban environments and incorporate them into a children’s physical activity index (CAI). We conducted qualitative guided interviews with nine- to ten-year-old children and parents of primary school children in Berlin to identify the factors and their importance for describing activity friendliness. Access to activity and recreational destinations, land use, traffic and road safety, and the social environment were the most prominent factors identified for the activity friendliness for children. The newly developed CAI enables a differentiation in the activity friendliness of urban neighborhoods for children.