Abstract The objective of this cohort study was to explore relationships among the home food environment (HFE), child/parent characteristics, diet quality, and measured weight status among 699 ...child-parent pairs from King County, WA, and San Diego County, CA. HFE variables included parenting style/feeding practices, food rules, frequency of eating out, home food availability, and parents’ perceptions of food costs. Child dietary intake was measured by 3-day recall and diet quality indicators included fruits and vegetables, sweet/savory snacks, high-calorie beverages, and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score. Individual linear regression models were run in which child BMI z score and child diet quality indicators were dependent variables and HFE variables and child/parent characteristics were independent variables of interest. Fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with parental encouragement/modeling (β=.68, P <0.001) and unhealthful food availability (−0.27, P <0.05); DASH score with food availability (healthful: 1.3, P <0.01; unhealthful: −2.25, P <0.001), food rules (0.45, P <0.01), and permissive feeding style (−1.04, P <0.05); high-calorie beverages with permissive feeding style (0.14, P <0.01) and unhealthful food availability (0.21, P <0.001); and sweet/savory snacks with healthful food availability (0.26, P <0.05; unexpectedly positive). Children's BMI z score was positively associated with parent's use of food restriction (0.21, P <0.001), permissive feeding style (0.16, P <0.05), and concern for healthy food costs (0.10, P <0.01), but negatively with verbal encouragement/modeling (−0.17, P <0.05), and pressure to eat (−0.34, P <0.001). Various HFE factors associated with parenting around eating and food availability are related to child diet quality and weight status. These factors should be considered when designing interventions for improving child health.
Children in households of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to be overweight/obese. We aimed to determine if home physical activity (PA) environments differed by SES and to explore ...home environment mediators of the relation of family SES to children's PA and sedentary behavior.
Participants were 715 children aged 6 to 11 from the Neighborhood Impact on Kids (NIK) Study. Household SES was examined using highest educational attainment and income. Home environment was measured by parent report on a survey. Outcomes were child's accelerometer-measured PA and parent-reported screen time. Mediation analyses were conducted for home environment factors that varied by SES.
Children from lower income households had greater media access in their bedrooms (TV 52% vs. 14%, DVD player 39% vs. 14%, video games 21% vs. 9%) but lower access to portable play equipment (bikes 85% vs. 98%, jump ropes 69% vs. 83%) compared to higher income children. Lower SES families had more restrictive rules about PA (2.5 vs. 2.0). Across SES, children watched TV/DVDs with parents/siblings more often than they engaged in PA with them. Parents of lower SES watched TV/DVDs with their children more often (3.1 vs. 2.5 days/week). Neither total daily and home-based MVPA nor sedentary time differed by SES. Children's daily screen time varied from 1.7 hours/day in high SES to 2.4 in low SES families. Media in the bedroom was related to screen time, and screen time with parents was a mediator of the SES--screen time relationship.
Lower SES home environments provided more opportunities for sedentary behavior and fewer for PA. Removing electronic media from children's bedrooms has the potential to reduce disparities in chronic disease risk.
We studied whether park size, number of features in the park, and distance to a park from participants' homes were related to a park being used for physical activity.
We collected observational data ...on 28 specific features from 33 parks. Adult residents in surrounding areas (n=380) completed 7-day physical activity logs that included the location of their activities. We used logistic regression to examine the relative importance of park size, features, and distance to participants' homes in predicting whether a park was used for physical activity, with control for perceived neighborhood safety and aesthetics.
Parks with more features were more likely to be used for physical activity; size and distance were not significant predictors. Park facilities were more important than were park amenities. Of the park facilities, trails had the strongest relationship with park use for physical activity.
Specific park features may have significant implications for park-based physical activity. Future research should explore these factors in diverse neighborhoods and diverse parks among both younger and older populations.
The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in empirical investigation into the relations between built environment and physical activity. To create places that facilitate and encourage walking, ...practitioners need an understanding of the specific characteristics of the built environment that correlate most strongly with walking. This article reviews evidence on the built environment correlates with walking.
Included in this review were 13 reviews published between 2002 and 2006 and 29 original studies published in 2005 and up through May 2006. Results were summarized based on specific characteristics of the built environment and transportation walking versus recreational walking.
Previous reviews and newer studies document consistent positive relations between walking for transportation and density, distance to nonresidential destinations, and land use mix; findings for route/network connectivity, parks and open space, and personal safety are more equivocal. Results regarding recreational walking were less clear.
More recent evidence supports the conclusions of prior reviews, and new studies address some of the limitations of earlier studies. Although prospective studies are needed, evidence on correlates appears sufficient to support policy changes.
Evidence documents associations between neighborhood design and active and sedentary forms of travel. Most studies compare travel patterns for people located in different types of neighborhoods at ...one point in time adjusting for demographics. Most fail to account for either underlying neighborhood selection factors (reasons for choosing a neighborhood) or preferences (neighborhoods that are preferred) that impact neighborhood selection and behavior. Known as self-selection, this issue makes it difficult to evaluate causation among built form, behavior, and associated outcomes and to know how much more walking and less driving could occur through creating environments conducive to active transport. The current study controls for neighborhood selection and preference and isolates the effect of the built environment on walking, car use, and obesity. Separate analyses were conducted among 2056 persons in the Atlanta, USA based Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta's Regional Transportation and Air Quality (SMARTRAQ) travel survey on selection factors and 1466 persons in the SMARTRAQ community preference sub-survey. A significant proportion of the population are “mismatched” and do not live in their preferred neighborhood type. Factors influencing neighborhood selection and individual preferences, and current neighborhood walkability explained vehicle travel distance after controlling for demographic variables. Individuals who preferred and lived in a walkable neighborhood walked most (33.9% walked) and drove 25.8 miles per day on average. Individuals that preferred and lived in car dependent neighborhoods drove the most (43 miles per day) and walked the least (3.3%). Individuals that do not prefer a walkable environment walked little and show no change in obesity prevalence regardless of where they live. About half as many participants were obese (11.7%) who prefer and live in walkable environments than participants who prefer car dependent environments (21.6%). Findings suggest that creating walkable environments may result in higher levels of physical activity and less driving and in slightly lower obesity prevalence for those preferring walkability.
•Utilitarian and recreational walking are different behaviors.•Differ by duration, speed, temporal distribution, and location.•Utilitarian walking in high residential, job, street, and mixed-use ...density places.•Recreational walking in high property value and park density and more sloped places.•52.6% of utilitarian and 68.9% of recreational walking classified as home-based.
Utilitarian and recreational walking both contribute to physical activity. Yet walking for these two purposes may be different behaviors. We sought to provide operational definitions of utilitarian and recreational walking and to objectively measure their behavioral, spatial, and temporal differences in order to inform transportation and public health policies and interventions.
Data were collected 2008–2009 from 651 Seattle-King County residents, wearing an accelerometer and a GPS unit, and filling-in a travel diary for 7days. Walking activity bouts were classified as utilitarian or recreational based on whether walking had a destination or not. Differences between the two walking purposes were analyzed, adjusting for the nested structure of walking activity within participants.
Of the 4905 observed walking bouts, 87.4% were utilitarian and 12.6% recreational walking. Utilitarian walking bouts were 45% shorter in duration (−12.1min) and 9% faster in speed (+0.3km/h) than recreational walking bouts. Recreational walking occurred more frequently in the home neighborhood and was not associated with recreational land uses. Utilitarian walking occurred in areas having higher residential, employment, and street density, lower residential property value, higher area percentage of mixed-use neighborhood destinations, lower percentage of parks/trails, and lower average topographic slope than recreational walking.
Utilitarian and recreational walking are substantially different in terms of frequency, speed, duration, location, and related built environment. Policies that promote walking should adopt type-specific strategies. The high occurrence of recreational walking near home highlights the importance of the home neighborhood for this activity.
Physical activity is important to children's physical health and well-being. Many factors contribute to children's physical activity, and the built environment has garnered considerable interest ...recently, as many young children spend much of their time in and around their immediate neighborhood. Few studies have identified correlates of children's activity in specific locations. This study examined associations between parent report of their home neighborhood environment and children's overall and location-specific physical activity.
Parents and children ages 6 to 11 (n=724), living in neighborhoods identified through objective built environment factors as high or low in physical activity environments, were recruited from Seattle and San Diego metropolitan areas, 2007-2009. Parents completed a survey about their child's activity and perceptions of home neighborhood environmental attributes. Children wore an accelerometer for 7 days. Multivariate regression models explored perceived environment correlates of parent-reported child's recreational physical activity in their neighborhood, in parks, and in general, as well as accelerometry-based moderate-to-vigorous activity (MVPA) minutes.
Parent-reported proximity to play areas correlated positively with both accelerometery MVPA and parent-reported total child physical activity. Lower street connectivity and higher neighborhood aesthetics correlated with higher reported child activity in the neighborhood, while reported safety from crime and walk and cycle facilities correlated positively with reported child activity in public recreation spaces.
Different aspects of parent's perceptions of the neighborhood environment appear to correlate with different aspects of children's activity. However, prioritizing closer proximity to safe play areas may best improve children's physical activity and, in turn, reduce their risk of obesity and associated chronic diseases.
Few people in most developed nations engage in regular physical activity (PA), despite its well-established health benefits. Socioecological models highlight the potential interaction of multiple ...factors from policy and the built environment to individual social cognition in explaining PA.
The purpose of this review was to appraise this interaction tenet of the socioecological model between the built environment and social cognition to predict PA.
Eligible studies had to have been published in peer-reviewed journals in the English language, and included any tests of interaction between social cognition and the built environment with PA. Literature searches, concluded in October 2017, used five common databases. Findings were grouped by type of PA outcomes (leisure, transportation, total PA and total moderate-vigorous PA MVPA), then grouped by the type of interactions between social cognitive and built environment constructs.
The initial search yielded 308 hits, which was reduced to 22 independent studies of primarily high- to medium-quality after screening for eligibility criteria. The interaction tenet of the socioecological model was not supported for overall MVPA and total PA. By contrast, while there was heterogeneity of findings for leisure-time PA, environmental accessibility/convenience interacted with intention, and environmental aesthetics interacted with affective judgments, to predict leisure-time PA. Interactions between the built environment and social cognition in PA for transport are limited, with current results failing to support an effect.
The results provide some support for interactive aspects of the built environment and social cognition in leisure-time PA, and thus highlight potential areas for integrated intervention of individual and environmental change.
Physical activity (PA) is important for children's health and development, yet preschoolers are not meeting PA recommendations. The objective of this study was to examine different PA opportunities ...at child care and how variation in indoor versus outdoor and free versus teacher-led opportunities relate to children's PA.
An observational study of 98 children (mean age 4.5 years, 49% girls) from 10 child care centers. Classrooms were observed for at least 4 full days per center (total 50 days) to categorize time into (1) not an active play opportunity (APO); (2) naptime; (3) APO, outdoor free play; (4) APO, outdoor teacher-led; (5) APO, indoor free play; and (6) APO, indoor teacher-led. Children wore accelerometers during observations. Linear regression models examined the influence of APO categories on moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time.
Children's activity was 73% sedentary, 13% light, and 14% MVPA. For 88% of time children did not have APOs, including 26% time as naptime. On average, 48 minutes per day were APOs (41% sedentary, 18% light, and 41% MVPA), 33 minutes per day were outdoors. The most frequent APO was outdoor free play (8% of time); outdoor teacher-led time was <1%. Children were more active and less sedentary outdoors versus indoors and during the child-initiated APOs (indoors and outdoors) versus teacher-led APOs.
Preschoolers were presented with significantly fewer than recommended opportunities for PA at child care. More APOs are needed for children to meet recommendations, particularly those that encourage more outdoor time, more teacher-led and child-initiated active play, and flexibility in naptime for preschoolers.
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