Associations of Neighborhood Environment and Walking in Korean Elderly Women: A Comparison between Urban and Rural Dwellers

The purposes of this study were (1) to describe patterns in leisure time walking of Korean urban and rural senior females, (2) to examine urban-rural differences in perceived environmental variables associated with walking behavior, and (3) to explore potential effects of neighborhood attributes on walking of elderly women. This study presents the results of a cross-sectional survey of female seniors in urban (n=216) and rural areas (n=221) of Korea in 2014. A series of logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the self-reported measures of the variables associated with walking. The results found that significantly more urban females, 42.6% engaged in the "recommended" amount of walking activity compared to 29.0% of rural females. Overall, rural females had higher social support, lower intention, and lower self-efficacy than urban females. Also, rural senior females were comparatively dissatisfied with their walking environments compared to their urban counterparts. After adjusting for age, income, and education, for rural women, proximity to parks was the strongest positive association with attaining the recommended level of walking followed by street trees. For urban women, crime safety was an important environmental variable to meet physical activity recommendations. These findings support the importance of environmental influences on physical activity in older women and are useful for developing physical activity interventions to women in urban and rural communities.