Results
Approximately 62.0% of the respondents were female, 88.6% were white, 93.2% had a college or postgraduate degree, 88.6% were employed, and 54.1% were aged 20 to 39 years. Roughly 45% reported an annual household income greater than $90,000. Respondents reported a mean of 10.1 months' residence in Mueller and 50.2 months in their previous home.
The demographics did not differ significantly among the low-, middle-, and high-activity groups. Approximately 67% of the low-activity group were female compared with 53% of the middle- and 65% of the high-activity groups; 96% of the low-activity group had a college or postgraduate degree compared with 90.0% of the middle- and 95.0% of the high-activity groups; 57.0% of the low- and middle- activity groups were aged 20 to 39 years compared with 48.0% of the high-activity group; and 36.0% of the low-activity group reported an annual household income greater than $90,000 compared with 48% of the middle- and 46% of the high-activity groups. Thirty-eight percent of the low-activity group had lived in Mueller for 12 to 20 months compared with 36% of the middle- and 45% of the high-activity groups.
Almost 87.0% of the respondents (n = 231) had moved to Mueller from another area of Austin. Approximately 25.0% had moved from neighborhoods with fewer than 881 people per square kilometer, and 25.0% had moved from neighborhoods with greater than 2,223 people per square kilometer. Mueller had a population density below 881 people per square kilometer at the time of our study.
Results of both the paired sample t test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were the same for all but 2 of the preference items. The paired sample t tests showed significant pre- to post-move changes in mean scores for most of the neighborhood preference dimensions (Table 1). In summary, the preferred neighborhood features with the most significant pre- to post-move change scores were those associated with greater walkability (ie, being close to open space and parks, recreational facilities, shops, services, and restaurants). Several reasons were not significantly different between neighborhoods: affordability/value, access to freeways, and quality of schools, although the latter variable was significant according to the Wilcoxon test, P = .02. Additionally, safety from crime was significant according to the paired t test (P = .04), it was not significant according to the Wilcoxon test (P = .12).
Overall, after moving to Mueller, the high-activity group continued to be significantly more active than the middle- and low-activity groups (P < .001) (high-activity group, mean 637.3 min total physical activity/wk; middle-activity group, mean 360.2 min total physical activity/wk; and low-activity group, mean 258.1 min total physical activity/wk). For all 3 groups, the majority of post-move physical activity was recreational (P < .001) (high-activity group, mean 555.4 min total recreational physical activity/wk; middle-activity group, mean 339.5 min total recreational physical activity/wk; and low-activity group, mean 251.8 min total recreational physical activity/wk).
Although the high-activity group stayed the most active post-move, the low- and middle-activity groups had an increase in reported total physical activity (mean 176.3 min/wk and 69.5 min/wk, respectively), whereas physical activity in the high-activity group declined by an average of 67.9 minutes per week (P < .001). Similarly, the low- and middle-activity groups had a reported mean increase of total recreational activity per week (178.8 min/wk and 77.4 min/wk, respectively), and the high-activity group had a reported mean decrease of 44.5 minutes per week (P < .001). The low-activity group was the only group to report greater post-move transport-related activity with an average increase of 14.3 minutes per week, compared with the middle- and high-activity groups (mean decrease 6.3 min/wk and 22.0 min/wk, respectively; P = .03).
We collected behavior-specific information on respondents (Table 2). All 3 groups reported substantial increases in recreational walking inside the neighborhood (mean increase 100.7 min/wk, low-activity group; 47.3 min/wk, middle-activity group; 56.5 min/wk, high-activity group; P = .05). Walking for recreation outside the neighborhood decreased (mean decrease 2.0 min/wk, low-activity group; 18.2 min/wk, middle-activity group; 40.2 min/wk high-activity group; P = <.001). The low-activity group did not change its walking behaviors related to transport inside the neighborhood from pre- to post- move (0.8 min/wk), whereas the middle- and high-activity groups both reported a decrease (mean 7.9 min/wk, middle-activity group; 20.3 min/wk, high-activity group, P =.10).
We saw the biggest increases in physical activity in the low-activity group, followed by the middle-activity group. However, when considering the importance of Mueller's characteristics stratified by changes in pre-move physical activity (Table 3), the high-activity group reported a significantly higher level of importance on closeness to open space and parks on the Likert scale (4.60) than the low- (4.22) and middle-activity (4.36) groups (P = .02). Although not significant, the high-activity group also reported a higher level of importance on ease of walking (4.32 Likert scale [1, not at all important; 2 and 3, somewhat important; 4 and 5, very important]) compared with 4.13 (low-activity group) and 4.09, middle-activity group (P = .24) and closeness to recreational facilities (3.71, high-activity group; 3.43 low-activity group; 3.33, middle-activity group; P = .11).