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Background: Walkability is a popular term used to describe aspects of the built and social environment that have important population-level impacts on physical activity, energy balance, and health. Although the term is widely used by researchers, practitioners, and the general public, and multiple operational definitions and walkability measurement tools exist, there are is no agreed-upon conceptual definition of walkability.Method: To address this gap, researchers from Memorial University of Newfoundland hosted "The Future of Walkability Measures Workshop" in association with researchers from the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) in November 2017. During the workshop, trainees, researchers, and practitioners worked together in small groups to iteratively develop and reach consensus about a conceptual definition and name for walkability. The objective of this paper was to discuss and propose a conceptual definition of walkability and related concepts.Results: In discussions during the workshop, it became clear that the term walkability leads to a narrow conception of the environmental features associated with health as it inherently focuses on walking. As a result, we suggest that the term Active Living Environments, as has been previously proposed in the literature, are more appropriate. We define Active Living Environments (ALEs) as the emergent natural, built, and social properties of neighbourhoods that promote physical activity and health and allow for equitable access to health-enhancing resources.Conclusions: We believe that this broader conceptualization allows for a more comprehensive understanding of how built, natural, and social environments can contribute to improved health for all members of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies examine associations between objectively-calculated neighbourhood built environment attributes and objectively-assessed sedentary behaviour in different geographical locations, especially in highly-populated environments. Additionally, no study, to our knowledge, has investigated associations between objective measures of neighbourhood built environment attributes and objectively-assessed sedentary behaviours in middle-aged adults, despite the fact that this is a critical stage of life when age-related functional decline begins. We examined the associations between neighbourhood built environment attributes with the total, and patterns of, objectively-assessed sedentary behaviours in a densely-populated area in Asia. Data from 866 adults (ages 40 to 64) living in Japan were included. Four classifications of sedentary behaviours, including daily total sedentary time, duration and number of long (≥30 min) sedentary bouts and breaks per sedentary hour, were estimated using hip-worn accelerometers. Individual (population density, availability of destinations, number of intersections, and distance to the nearest park) and composite (walkability and Walk Score®) neighbourhood built environment indices were calculated using geographic information systems. Covariate-adjusted multilevel linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the associations between the neighbourhood built environment attributes and sedentary behaviours. Population density and availability of destinations were positively associated with sedentary behaviours; however, the number of intersections was negatively associated with sedentary behaviours. No associations were observed between the distance to the nearest park and sedentary behaviours. There were positive associations between walkability and total sedentary time, and duration and the number of long sedentary bouts. Walk Score® was positively associated with total sedentary time and the number of long sedentary bouts. These findings suggest that urban design attributes supportive of walking (except for the number of intersections) may encourage sedentary behaviour among middle-aged adults living in densely-populated environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]