2024

We investigated associations between neighborhood walkability and physical activity using twins (5477 monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic pairs) as “quasi-experimental” controls of genetic and shared environment (familial) factors that would otherwise confound exposure-outcome associations. Walkability comprised intersection density, population density, and destination accessibility. Outcomes included self-reported weekly minutes of neighborhood walking and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) […]

Background: Outdoor physical activity (PA) is an important component of overall health; however, it is difficult to measure. Passively collected smartphone location data like Google Location History (GLH) present an opportunity to address this issue. Objectives: To evaluate the use of GLH data for measuring outdoor PA. Methods: We collected GLH data for 357 individuals from the Washington […]

Although research shows a strong positive association between perceived stress and loneliness, the genetic and environmental etiology underlying their association remains unknown. People with a genetic predisposition to perceived stress, for example, may be more prone to feeling lonely and vice versa. Conversely, unique factors in people’s lives may explain differences in perceived stress levels […]

Objective: Neighbourhood deprivation has been found to be associated with many health conditions, but its association with low back pain (LBP) and arthritis is unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between neighbourhood deprivation with LBP and arthritis, and its potential interaction with individual socioeconomic status (SES) on these outcomes. Methods: Monozygotic (MZ) twins from the […]