Walking for Transportation: What do U.S. Adults Think is a Reasonable Distance and Time?

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Phys Act Health
• Personal Author:
  Watson, Kathleen B ; Carlson, Susan A ; Humbert-Rico, Tiffany ; Carroll, Dianna D. ; Fulton, Janet E
• Description:
  Background
  
  Less than one-third of U.S. adults walk for transportation. Public health strategies to increase transportation walking would benefit from knowing what adults think is a reasonable distance to walk. Our purpose was to determine (1) what adults think is a reasonable distance and amount of time to walk and (2) whether there were differences in minutes spent transportation walking by what adults think is reasonable.
  
  Methods
  
  Analyses used a cross-sectional nationwide adult sample (n=3,653) participating in the 2010 Summer ConsumerStyles mail survey.
  
  Results
  
  Most adults (>90%) think transportation walking is reasonable. However, less than half (43%) think walking a mile or more or for 20 minutes or more is reasonable. What adults think is reasonable is similar across most demographic subgroups, except for older adults (≥ 65 years) who think shorter distances and times are reasonable. Trend analysis that adjust for demographic characteristics indicates adults who think longer distances and times are reasonable walk more.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Walking for short distances is acceptable to most U.S. adults. Public health programs designed to encourage longer distance trips may wish to improve supports for transportation walking to make walking longer distances seem easier and more acceptable to most U.S. adults.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Aged Cross-Sectional Studies Distance Perception Female Humans Male Middle Aged Public Health Surveys And Questionnaires Thinking Time Perception Transportation Walking Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  J Phys Act Health. 12(0 1):S53-S61.
• Pubmed ID:
  25158016
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4589135
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:26d2c8e000ea0e7f437fd4c39463e29bfe591e7a7ed180dcd95a46c55655024c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/34628/cdc_34628_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 418.79 KB ]