The purpose of this study was to understand how walkability, green space, and safety affect early life obesity. The authors hypothesized that children living in neighborhoods characterized by more crime and traffic safety issues would have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and higher prevalence of obesity, even after accounting for walkability and green space, which were hypothesized to predict lower BMIs and obesity prevalence. The authors analyzed data from 11,562 low income children ages 3–5 years living in 160 residential ZIP codes, enrolled in a large, need-based preschool program in New York City in 2004. This data set included measured height and weight and demographics. Each ZIP code was surrounded by a 400m buffer which was characterized using US Census data and a variety of other databases to determine the sociodemographic characteristics of the area, walkability, density of trees and park areas, and safety issues measured by homicide rate and pedestrian-fatality rate.
Results demonstrated that, among all the predictors, a higher homicide rate was associated with higher BMIs and higher prevalence of obesity and a higher density of street trees was associated with lower BMIs and lower prevalence of obesity. Walkability, park access, and pedestrian-auto fatalities were not related to obesity. The lack of association between parks and obesity in this study, in contrast to others in the literature, may be related to lack of park amenities and poor park conditions, which have been shown to be an issue in lower income neighborhoods. The lack of association between walkability and obesity is consistent with other literature focused specifically on low-income populations.
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