Objective  To explore the effect of neighborhood environment on physical activity (PA) among school children and adolescents in Nanjing city of Jiangsu province and to provide evidences for promoting PA in children and adolescents.

  Methods  Using multistage cluster random sampling, we recruited 4 498 students aged 9 – 17 years in 36 primary and high schools in 12 administrative regions of Nanjing municipality for a on-site self-administered questionnaire survey between May and June 2018. The Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES) was used to assess PA-related characteristics of neighborhood environment. Multivariate logistic regression model was adopted to evaluated the impact of perceived neighborhood environment on PA among the students.

  Results  Of the 4 401 students completing the survey, 21.1% (930) reported sufficient PA recommended by the Guidance of Physical Activity for Chinese Children and Adolescents. Adopting school as a random factor and adjusting for age, gender and parental education, the results of multivariate logistic regression revealed that there being sidewalk and bicycle lane in community road traffic assignment were significant facilitating factors of PA for all the students, with the odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval 95% CI) of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.10 – 1.78) and 1.37 (95% CI: 1.12 – 1.67), respectively; for the junior high school students, there being bicycle lane in community road traffic assignment (OR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.11 – 2.27) was a significant promoting factor of PA; for senior high school students, witness of community residents′ active physical activity (OR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.05 – 3.39) was a motivating factor of PA.

  Conclusion  Neighborhood environment is of obvious impacts on physical activity of school children and adolescents, suggesting that more attentions should be paid to neighborhood environment for promoting physical activity among the children and adolescents.