Are Area-Level Crimes Associated with Older Adults’ Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior?
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The Abstract contains a lot of technical figures, with abbreviation that are not initially detailed concerning their signification.
Introduction
It does not contain the importance of the research and the relevance for the domain. It seems to be a briefly literature review followed by ambiguous objectives. No research question is asked nor hypotheses. The introduction must be improved in order to contain a relevant information for readers, including the main research results.
Literature review
The literature review is completely absent. It is an unusual way to write an article. The references are spread along the article but there is not a common background from which the research started. It is recommended to make a thorough literature review in order to define better the research objectives.
Materials and methods
It is not very clear how the sample has been selected. What means "were recruited using a telephone-based survey"? Which was the sampling method? It is also difficult to understand which type of interview has been used (direct or by phone?). The main aspects concerning the respondents have been asked are not presented. Generally, the methodology is poor presented.
Results
Usually if the Logistic Regression is used, a Regression function should be computed. This function is not presented in the article. In this context, the results appear as seamless. It is difficult to follow all the figures presented in text and tables, especially for common readers. The results should be explained from the economic perspective (not statistics or mathematics results).
Discussion
The discussion is very short and focused only on the results, without any comparisons with other results. The literature should be reviewed!
Conclusion are very poor, consisting in only two phrases. No statement about the results impact is made.
Author Response
Dear Prof. Mark Rosenberg
Guest Editor,
Sustainability
Re: Are area-level crimes associated with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior? (Manuscript ID: sustainability-475164)
The author wishes to thank the reviewers for reading our manuscript so thoroughly and providing such constructive feedback. The quality of my manuscript has certainly improved as a result of these comments. My responses and the necessary changes are included here and within the revised manuscript. I list the comments from each reviewer followed by my responses below. The revised and new sentences are highlighted in yellow background in the revised manuscript.
Responses to the Reviewer 1:
Query 1: The Abstract contains a lot of technical figures, with abbreviation that are not initially detailed concerning their signification.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your comment. We have added the detailed information of the abbreviation we used at the first time in the Abstract section to confirm their signification. (page 1, lines 23-28)
Fully adjusted analyses showed older adults living in neighborhoods with a higher incidence of drug crime (odds ratio, OR = 0.71, 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.52-0.96), car theft (OR= 0.70, 95% CI 0.51-0.95), and locomotive theft (OR= 0.69, 95% CI 0.51-0.94) were found to be less likely to achieve the recommendation on physical activity. In addition, those living in neighborhoods with a higher incidence of theft (OR= 1.93, 95% CI 1.05-3.55), drug crime (OR=1.93, 95% CI 1.05-3.55), breaking and entering (OR=2.04, 95% CI 1.11-3.76), and rape (OR=2.20, 95% CI 1.20-4.06) were more likely to have more sedentary time.
Query 2: Introduction
It does not contain the importance of the research and the relevance for the domain. It seems to be a briefly literature review followed by ambiguous objectives. No research question is asked nor hypotheses. The introduction must be improved in order to contain a relevant information for readers, including the main research results.
Response 2: Thank you very much for your comment. We have considerably reorganized and revised the Introduction section, by highlighting the importance of the research and providing comprehensive information of previous findings and limitations.
Furthermore, there were only few studies investigated the association with older adults’ active and sedentary behavior used objectively-measured safety from crime. One previous research from Norway showed that older men living in a higher level of neighborhood violence incidence was associated with decreased physical activity [12]. Previous studies used audit tool, such as observing the proportion of homes with high border markers [13] and crime watch signage [14], found that physical activity was positively associated with safety from crime. In contrast, another study observed the prevalence of signs of crime showed a negative association with sitting behavior [15]. These previous findings used inconsistent methods and had mixed results. (page 2, lines 48-56)
First, studies used some proximity indicators as the area-level safety from crime [13-15] but rarely used crime data to assess the association of crime safety with physical activity and sedentary behavior. The one study used crime data only extracted violent crime but lack of other types of crime [12]. Second, a limited number of studies have examined gender-specific associations in objectively-measured crime safety and older adults’ active and sedentary behaviors, with gender differences in environmental attributes related to physical activity having been widely reported [16, 17]. The environmental factors seemed to have more influence on the physical activity in men than in women. Most previous studies have been conducted in Western populations [12-14], only one study from Hong Kong [15]; therefore, such data from Asian countries are still required. (page 2, lines 57-66)
To address these research gaps, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between different types of area-level crimes, and older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior under the Asian context. In addition, we also examine the gender difference for the development of a multi-level intervention to promote active living and avoidance of sedentary lifestyles. (page 2, lines 67-69)
Query 3: Literature review
The literature review is completely absent. It is an unusual way to write an article. The references are spread along the article but there is not a common background from which the research started. It is recommended to make a thorough literature review in order to define better the research objectives.
Response 3: Thank you very much for your comment. We have revised the paper with a systematic and extensive review on related issue in the Introduction section. (page 2, lines 48-56)
Furthermore, there were only few studies investigated the association with older adults’ active and sedentary behavior used objectively-measured safety from crime. One previous research from Norway showed that older men living in a higher level of neighborhood violence incidence was associated with decreased physical activity [12]. Previous studies used audit tool, such as observing the proportion of homes with high border markers [13] and crime watch signage [14], found that physical activity was positively associated with safety from crime. In contrast, another study observed the prevalence of signs of crime showed a negative association with sitting behavior [15]. These previous findings used inconsistent methods and had mixed results.
Query 4: Materials and methods
It is not very clear how the sample has been selected. What means "were recruited using a telephone-based survey"? Which was the sampling method? It is also difficult to understand which type of interview has been used (direct or by phone?). The main aspects concerning the respondents have been asked are not presented. Generally, the methodology is poor presented.
Response 4: Thank you very much for your comment. We have added the detailed information about the sampling procedure in the Materials and methods section. (page 2, lines 73-80)
Data for older adults aged 65 years and above were collected by conducting a computer-assisted telephone interviewing in 2017. We randomly dialed with four-digit suffixes based on the national frame of telephone numbers. Participants aged 65 years and above in Taiwan were recruited using a telephone-based survey based on an orderly two stage random digit dialing procedure. The population aged 65 years and above were randomly sampled by their residential regions in the beginning sampling stage, and then stratified by sex and age group in the second stage. Each survey was conducted by a trained interviewer with a structured questionnaire through household telephone.
Query 5: Results
Usually if the Logistic Regression is used, a Regression function should be computed. This function is not presented in the article. In this context, the results appear as seamless. It is difficult to follow all the figures presented in text and tables, especially for common readers. The results should be explained from the economic perspective (not statistics or mathematics results).
Response 5: Thank you very much for your comment. First of all, we have added the logistic function in the Materials and methods section, Results section and Tables accordingly.
Then, adjusted logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association of area-level crime incidence with the odds ratios (ORs) of engaging in sufficient physical activity (150+ min/week) and excessive sedentary behavior (≥8 hours/day) after adjusting for the covariates. (page 3, lines 174-175)
Furthermore, we have revised our results to be more concise (economic perspective) and also enhanced the readability for the common readers.
Generally, the results showed that crime incidence was negatively related to physical activity and positively associated with sedentary behavior among older adults. The results also showed that older adults living in the area with higher incidence of total crimes, drug crimes, theft, motor vehicle theft, and locomotive theft were less likely to achieve sufficient physical activity (more than 150 min/week). By contrast, the results also indicated that older adults living in the area with higher incidence of total crimes, drug crimes, breaking and entering, motor vehicle theft, locomotive theft, and rape were more likely to engage in excessive sedentary behavior (more than 8 hr/day) (as Table 2). (page 4, lines 192-199)
Furthermore, there was a marked sex difference between the associations. In summary, the negative associations of different types of crime and physical activity were only observed in men; by contrast, the positive relationships of different types of crime and sedentary behavior were only observed in women (as Table 3). (page 4, lines 200-203)
Query 6: Discussion
The discussion is very short and focused only on the results, without any comparisons with other results. The literature should be reviewed!
Response 6: Thank you very much for your comment. We have considerably reorganized and revised the Discussion section to compare the present findings to previous findings and sum up the conclusion.
This study examined the relationship of area-level crime with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior in the Asian context. Consistent with previous studies reported on physical activity [13, 14] and sedentary behavior [15], the main finding of the present study is that older Taiwanese adults living in an area with higher overall crime incidence were less likely to achieve the physical activity recommendations (150 min/week) and more likely to engage in excessive sedentary time (8 hr/day). The results suggested that a lack of safety in the local area may discourage active lifestyles at the population level rather than for the individual victims. High area crime incidence may induce a lack of safely among people living in the neighboring area and taking actions for prevention. For example, worries about theft may contribute not only to reduce the time spent on outdoor physical activity but also to increase the time spent on indoor sedentary behavior. In consistent to a previous study for Norway population [12], our findings showed the violent crime (i.e. burglary, breaking and entering, and rape) were not associated with men’s active behavior. The difference between these two studies based on different countries may attribute to the criminal pattern. In Oslo, the capital of Norway, the amount of total crimes reported decreased but violent and weapons-related crimes increased in 2017 [25]. By contrast, in Taiwan, overall violent crime rates were among the lowest in the world [26]. Our results may have significant implications for informing local policy-makers and public health initiatives, where different types of crime prevention should be considered as a strategy for promoting active and non-sedentary lifestyles among older adults. (page 6, lines 227-242)
Although numerous existing studies have found that the relationships between environment and physical activity vary by sex [27-29], only one study reported that violent crime incidence may have larger impact on older men’s physical activity than women’s [12]. Our results confirmed and extended previous findings to show that area-level crime incidence might be more critical for older men’s physical activity levels, and for older women’s sedentary behavior. (page 6, lines 246-249)
Query 7: Conclusion are very poor, consisting in only two phrases. No statement about the results impact is made.
Response 7: Thank you very much for your comment. We have considerably revised the Conclusion section. (page 7, lines 282-285)
These findings suggest that local crime prevention should be considered for policy makers when designing physical activity and sedentary behavior interventions for older adults. In particular, area-level crime incidence appears to be more critical for older men’s physical activity levels, and for older women’s sedentary behavior. Future prospective studies are warranted to further examine these associations using both subjective and objective measures.
I hope that you find these adjustments satisfactory and that the revised version will be acceptable for publication in the Sustainability.
Sincerely yours,
Yung Liao
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
I propose the following style of abstract: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
Please extend the Introduction with current study of this topics and also, please include which is the novelty of the research.
Please detailed the IPAQ questionnaire.
Which where the interpretation values of Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire??? please detailed...
Please extend the chapter Discussion because is too short, also, the Conclusions and the References.
Author Response
Dear Prof. Mark Rosenberg
Guest Editor,
Sustainability
Re: Are area-level crimes associated with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior? (Manuscript ID: sustainability-475164)
The author wishes to thank the reviewers for reading our manuscript so thoroughly and providing such constructive feedback. The quality of my manuscript has certainly improved as a result of these comments. My responses and the necessary changes are included here and within the revised manuscript. I list the comments from each reviewer followed by my responses below. The revised and new sentences are highlighted in yellow background in the revised manuscript.
Responses to the Reviewer 2:
Query 1: I propose the following style of abstract: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
Response1: Thank you very much for your comment. We agreed that the abstract need structured contents; however, according to the instructions which provided by the journal, we follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings.
Query 2: Please extend the Introduction with current study of this topics and also, please include which is the novelty of the research.
Response 2: Thank you very much for your comment. We have considerably reorganized and revised the Introduction section, by highlighting the importance of the research and providing comprehensive information of previous findings and limitations.
Furthermore, there were only few studies investigated the association with older adults’ active and sedentary behavior used objectively-measured safety from crime. One previous research from Norway showed that older men living in a higher level of neighborhood violence incidence was associated with decreased physical activity [12]. Previous studies used audit tool, such as observing the proportion of homes with high border markers [13] and crime watch signage [14], found that physical activity was positively associated with safety from crime. In contrast, another study observed the prevalence of signs of crime showed a negative association with sitting behavior [15]. These previous findings used inconsistent methods and had mixed results. (page 2, lines 48-56)
First, studies used some proximity indicators as the area-level safety from crime [13-15] but rarely used crime data to assess the association of crime safety with physical activity and sedentary behavior. The one study used crime data only extracted violent crime but lack of other types of crime [12]. Second, a limited number of studies have examined gender-specific associations in objectively-measured crime safety and older adults’ active and sedentary behaviors, with gender differences in environmental attributes related to physical activity having been widely reported [16, 17]. The environmental factors seemed to have more influence on the physical activity in men than in women. Most previous studies have been conducted in Western populations [12-14], only one study from Hong Kong [15]; therefore, such data from Asian countries are still required. (page 2, lines 57-66)
To address these research gaps, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between different types of area-level crimes, and older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior under the Asian context. In addition, we also examine the gender difference for the development of a multi-level intervention to promote active living and avoidance of sedentary lifestyles. (page 2, lines 67-69)
Query 3: Please detailed the IPAQ questionnaire.
Response 3: Thank you very much for your comment. We have added the detailed information about the IPAQ questionnaire. (page 3, lines 146-151)
The IPAQ-SF had an acceptable validity (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient [ICC] = 0.79) among adults [20] and a better validity (ICC=0.81-0.89) among older adults [21]. The participants were asked to report their average time spent in vigorous-intensity physical activity, moderate-intensity physical activity, and walking for the last seven days. The total physical activity was calculated and categorized into two groups (physically insufficient: less than 150 min/week, versus physically sufficient: 150+ min/week) based on international recommendations [22].
Query 4: Which where the interpretation values of Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire??? please detailed...
Response 4: Thank you very much for your comment. We have added the detailed information about the Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire. (page 3, line 157)
Ten different types of sedentary behavior, such as watching television, screen time, reading, and transport-related behavior, were all included in the questionnaire which showed adequate test-retest reliability for total sedentary behavior (Spearman’s correlation coefficients = 0.74) [23].
Query 5: Please extend the chapter Discussion because is too short, also, the Conclusions and the References.
Response 5: Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have considerably reorganized and revised the Discussion section to compare the present findings to previous findings and sum up the conclusion.
This study examined the relationship of area-level crime with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior in the Asian context. Consistent with previous studies reported on physical activity [13, 14] and sedentary behavior [15], the main finding of the present study is that older Taiwanese adults living in an area with higher overall crime incidence were less likely to achieve the physical activity recommendations (150 min/week) and more likely to engage in excessive sedentary time (8 hr/day). The results suggested that a lack of safety in the local area may discourage active lifestyles at the population level rather than for the individual victims. High area crime incidence may induce a lack of safely among people living in the neighboring area and taking actions for prevention. For example, worries about theft may contribute not only to reduce the time spent on outdoor physical activity but also to increase the time spent on indoor sedentary behavior. In consistent to a previous study for Norway population [12], our findings showed the violent crime (i.e. burglary, breaking and entering, and rape) were not associated with men’s active behavior. The difference between these two studies based on different countries may attribute to the criminal pattern. In Oslo, the capital of Norway, the amount of total crimes reported decreased but violent and weapons-related crimes increased in 2017 [25]. By contrast, in Taiwan, overall violent crime rates were among the lowest in the world [26]. Our results may have significant implications for informing local policy-makers and public health initiatives, where different types of crime prevention should be considered as a strategy for promoting active and non-sedentary lifestyles among older adults. (page 6, lines 227-242)
Although numerous existing studies have found that the relationships between environment and physical activity vary by sex [27-29], only one study reported that violent crime incidence may have larger impact on older men’s physical activity than women’s [12]. Our results confirmed and extended previous findings to show that area-level crime incidence might be more critical for older men’s physical activity levels, and for older women’s sedentary behavior. (page 6, lines 246-249)
These findings suggest that local crime prevention should be considered for policy makers when designing physical activity and sedentary behavior interventions for older adults. In particular, area-level crime incidence appears to be more critical for older men’s physical activity levels, and for older women’s sedentary behavior. Future prospective studies are warranted to further examine these associations using both subjective and objective measures. (page 7, lines 282-285)
I hope that you find these adjustments satisfactory and that the revised version will be acceptable for publication in the Sustainability.
Sincerely yours,
Yung Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Author,
I would like to sincerely congratulate you for such an intersting piece of research. I found the topic quite appealing and engaging.
In page 4 there is a huge gap and in page 5 the chart does not appear properly shown, as it is bigger than the previous ones.
Author Response
Dear Prof. Mark Rosenberg
Guest Editor,
Sustainability
Re: Are area-level crimes associated with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior? (Manuscript ID: sustainability-475164)
The author wishes to thank the reviewers for reading our manuscript so thoroughly and providing such constructive feedback. The quality of my manuscript has certainly improved as a result of these comments. My responses and the necessary changes are included here and within the revised manuscript. I list the comments from each reviewer followed by my responses below. The revised and new sentences are highlighted in yellow background in the revised manuscript.
Responses to the Reviewer 3:
General Comments
Dear Author,
I would like to sincerely congratulate you for such an intersting piece of research. I found the topic quite appealing and engaging.
In page 4 there is a huge gap and in page 5 the chart does not appear properly shown, as it is bigger than the previous ones.
Response: Thank you very much for your positive comments and suggestions. We have revised the format of Table 3 accordingly.
I hope that you find these adjustments satisfactory and that the revised version will be acceptable for publication in the Sustainability.
Sincerely yours,
Yung Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have improved significantly the quality of the paper. The explanation given by them are accepted. Nevertheless the general model used is not presented in terms of dependent and independent variables. Is it a simple or multiple regression model? I think that the mathematical equation of the model should be included in the material and methods section.
From my point of view the article could be published if this one fulfills the other editorial requirements.
Author Response
Dear Prof. Mark Rosenberg
Guest Editor,
Sustainability
Re: Are area-level crimes associated with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior? (Manuscript ID: sustainability-475164)
The author wishes to thank the reviewers for reading our manuscript so thoroughly and providing such constructive feedback. The quality of my manuscript has certainly improved as a result of these comments. My responses and the necessary changes are included here and within the revised manuscript. I list the comments from each reviewer followed by my responses below. The revised and new sentences are highlighted in yellow background in the revised manuscript.
Responses to the Reviewer 1:
Query 1: The authors have improved significantly the quality of the paper. The explanation given by them are accepted. Nevertheless the general model used is not presented in terms of dependent and independent variables. Is it a simple or multiple regression model? I think that the mathematical equation of the model should be included in the material and methods section.
From my point of view the article could be published if this one fulfills the other editorial requirements.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your comment. We used a multiple regression model in our analysis and we have added the detailed information about the regression model and formula in the Material and methods section. (page 3, lines 123-130)
The multiple regression model assumes that linear association between the logit of the independent () and dependent variables () with the associated covariates in the following form,
In the above expression, the parameters represent the regression coefficient of every independent and covariate, the parameters , , , , , denote the categories of covariate variables (i.e. sex, age group, education, occupation, marital status, and accommodation) respectively.
I hope that you find these adjustments satisfactory and that the revised version will be acceptable for publication in the Sustainability.
Sincerely yours,
Yung Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
-
Author Response
Dear Prof. Mark Rosenberg
Guest Editor,
Sustainability
Re: Are area-level crimes associated with older adults’ physical activity and sedentary behavior? (Manuscript ID: sustainability-475164)
The author wishes to thank the reviewers for reading our manuscript so thoroughly and providing such constructive feedback. The quality of my manuscript has certainly improved as a result of these comments. My responses and the necessary changes are included here and within the revised manuscript. I list the comments from each reviewer followed by my responses below. The revised and new sentences are highlighted in yellow background in the revised manuscript.
Responses to the Reviewer 2:
Response: Thank you very much for your positive comments.
I hope that you find these adjustments satisfactory and that the revised version will be acceptable for publication in the Sustainability.
Sincerely yours,
Yung Liao
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
