The Relationship Between the Social Environment and Lifestyle-Related Physical Activity in a Low-Income African American Inner-City Southern Neighborhood

The social ecological model was used to examine individual, interpersonal, and neighborhood characteristics related to lifestyle-related physical activity (PA) in a low-income African American (AA) population in New Orleans, Louisiana. Interviewers administered surveys to randomly-sampled household participants from three low-income, AA neighborhoods in New Orleans, Louisiana. Questions included the social and physical environment, physical activity, interpersonal factors, demographics, height and weight. Logistic regression multivariable models were built predicting whether the respondent met PA guidelines, controlling for neighborhood. Females were less as likely to engage in lifestyle-related PA compared to males (OR 0.46, CI 0.30-0.70). Support specific for PA was correlated with engaging in lifestyle-related PA (OR 1.45, CI 1.14-1.83). The individual and social environment should be considered for increasing PA in AA. Interventions targeting the AA population could consider ways of enhancing social support for PA.