Perceived safety of area of residence and exercise: a pan-European study

Abstract

The authors examined the association between perceived safety of neighborhood and likelihood of exercise among adult residents of eight European cities. Data were collected by a survey of neighborhood, housing, and health conducted by the World Health Organization in 2002 and 2003. Baseline category logistic regression models were fit to estimate the association between perceived safety and exercise, accounting for demographic and place-of-residence characteristics. Among women, perception of safety was associated with a 22% (95% confidence interval: 1.00, 1.54) and a 40% (95% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.91) elevation in the odds of occasional and frequent exercise, respectively. Among men, perception of safety was associated with a 39% elevation in the odds of occasional exercise, but there was no association with frequent exercise. If these findings were replicated, they would suggest that health promotion efforts could target residential areas without the need to identify specific persons.