Meta-analysis of empirical research on the correlation between built environment and health activities in China
Objective insufficient health activities among residents are key risk factors for death and chronic diseases.However,the health quality of Chinese residents is generally low,and the proportion of the population participating in healthy activities is much lower than that in developed countries.Optimizing the built environment can promote healthy activities and create a living environment that is more conducive to public health.Currently,there are many empirical studies on the impact of built environment on health activities in developed countries,but there are still research limitations caused by different regional backgrounds.Moreover,existing evidence shows that there are different patterns in different countries,and even some of the conclusions are contradictory.It is difficult for the research conclusions to be directly applied to China.In order to understand the status of empirical research on the impact of built environment on healthy activities in China,built environment,healthy activities,resident health and physical activity are the key words searched for relevant literature published from January 1,2010 to September 30,2020 based on China's three major literature data platforms CNKI,VIP and WanFang Data.Meta-analysis,an important research method in the field of evidence-based medicine,is used to integrate the research contents of different documents in the database into a unified system for analysis,and sort out the overall research results from a more macro perspective.The steps of Meta-analysis in this study include:1)clarify the concept and content of the research object;2)determine keywords and search for literature in the database;3)set inclusion and exclusion criteria for the literature,and screen the literature according to the criteria;4)determine the evaluation method and content,evaluate the quality of the selected literature;5)extract the relevant data of literature that meet the quality evaluation requirements;6)comprehensively analyze the extracted data to test the reliability and validity of the literature research results;7)summarize and discuss the analysis results.Nine papers were finally screened out that met the requirements of Meta-analysis,and it was concluded that:1)The layout of public facilities is positively related to health activities,increasing the number of public facilities,reasonable planning,etc.can promote residents'healthy activities,but the diversity of facilities and differences in residents'travel preferences may lead to contradictory research conclusions.2)Residential density is negatively related to healthy activities.Although a high-density residential environment can reduce individual motorized travel,the space congestion caused will also reduce residents'healthy activities.In China,the former effect is weaker than the latter.3)Destination accessibility is positively associated with healthy activity.Destination accessibility and healthy activities for residents can be improved by shortening commuting distances,increasing land use mix,and improving transportation.However,there is also a non-linear relationship such as the increase in land use mix.4)Traffic safety is positively related to health activities.Different community types,community development stages and economic bases of community residents will lead to big differences in the correlation between traffic safety and health activities.5)There is no clear correlation between environmental aesthetics perception and health activities.The number and heterogeneity of research subjects included in the analyzed literature will lead to different correlations between environmental aesthetics perception and health activities.More research results are needed to support it,but environmental Greening in aesthetic perception can significantly affect residents'self-rated health,physical activity satisfaction and participation rate.The results above show that the relationship between the built environment and healthy activities is complex,with non-linear relationship and threshold effects getting prevalent.The main reasons for the literature that are difficult to include in this Meta-analysis are as follows.1)The selected built environment indicators are different,and the basic data obtained cannot be transformed into a unified Meta-analysis system.2)The research framework lacks necessary control variables and comparative studies.It is difficult to judge the representativeness,resulting in a low evaluation of the quality of the literature.3)Lack of necessary regression analysis of the data,the study can prove the correlation.We make the following suggestions.1)Standardize the built environment indicator system and use standardized tools such as the Walking Environment Scale and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to obtain basic data.2)Combine cross-sectional and longitudinal research methods and set up a reference group similar to the basic situation of the research subjects.Change a certain built environment element in the research object,keep the control group unchanged,and obtain data at regular intervals for comparative analysis.3)Use multiple linear regression models or nonlinear regression models to clearly analyze the relationship between built environment indicators and health activities to further explore the non-linear relationship and potential threshold effects.4)Collect published and unpublished high-quality literature,academic reports,etc.through multiple channels and include them in Meta-analysis.5)Literature databases available for screening are not enough,the literature has publication bias,leading to biased results.
built environmenthealth activitiescorrelationempirical researchmeta-analysis