A scoping review of observational studies examining relationships between environmental behaviors and health behaviors

TY - JOUR

T1 - A scoping review of observational studies examining relationships between environmental behaviors and health behaviors

AU - Hutchinson, Jayne

AU - Prady, Stephanie Louise

AU - Smith, Michaela

AU - White, Piran Crawfurd Limond

AU - Graham, Hilary

N1 - © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PY - 2015/5/5

Y1 - 2015/5/5

N2 - Individual lifestyles are key drivers of both environmental change and chronic disease. We undertook a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies which examined associations between environmental and health behaviors of individuals in high-income countries. We searched EconLit, Medline, BIOSIS and the Social Science Citation Index. A total of 136 studies were included. The majority were USA-based cross-sectional studies using self-reported measures. Most of the evidence related to travel behavior, particularly active travel (walking and cycling) and physical activity (92 studies) or sedentary behaviors (19 studies). Associations of public transport use with physical activity were examined in 18 studies, and with sedentary behavior in one study. Four studies examined associations between car use and physical activity. A small number included other environmental behaviors (food-related behaviors (n = 14), including organic food, locally-sourced food and plate waste) and other health behaviors ((n = 20) smoking, dietary intake, alcohol). These results suggest that research on individual environmental and health behaviors consists largely of studies examining associations between travel mode and levels of physical activity. There appears to be less research on associations between other behaviors with environmental and health impacts, and very few longitudinal studies in any domain.

AB - Individual lifestyles are key drivers of both environmental change and chronic disease. We undertook a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies which examined associations between environmental and health behaviors of individuals in high-income countries. We searched EconLit, Medline, BIOSIS and the Social Science Citation Index. A total of 136 studies were included. The majority were USA-based cross-sectional studies using self-reported measures. Most of the evidence related to travel behavior, particularly active travel (walking and cycling) and physical activity (92 studies) or sedentary behaviors (19 studies). Associations of public transport use with physical activity were examined in 18 studies, and with sedentary behavior in one study. Four studies examined associations between car use and physical activity. A small number included other environmental behaviors (food-related behaviors (n = 14), including organic food, locally-sourced food and plate waste) and other health behaviors ((n = 20) smoking, dietary intake, alcohol). These results suggest that research on individual environmental and health behaviors consists largely of studies examining associations between travel mode and levels of physical activity. There appears to be less research on associations between other behaviors with environmental and health impacts, and very few longitudinal studies in any domain.

KW - Lifestyle

KW - pro-environmental behavior

KW - health-related behavior

KW - active travel

KW - public transport use

KW - physical activity

KW - consumption

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84929346741&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph120504833

DO - 10.3390/ijerph120504833

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84929346741

SN - 1661-7827

VL - 12

SP - 4833

EP - 4858

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)

IS - 5

ER -