The impact of neighbourhood crime on physical activity : evidence from 203,883 Australians

Interest in crime as a determinant of health has increased, yet with equivocal findings. Higher crime rates have been associated with lower levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in some studies but not all. These inconsistent findings might relate to geographic scale, where larger aggregations of ecological data may hide smaller pockets of proximal crime that could have more powerful impacts on behaviour. This study examined the extent to which neighbourhood crime is associated with MVPA, and to determine whether crime measured locally has a stronger impact on MVPA than a measure that takes into account a wider context.