The aim of this study was to examine whether the associations between exposure to greenness level and risk for being overweight/obese among preschoolers are modified by the distance to a city park and maternal education. While other studies have explored associations between greenness exposure of children of low socioeconomic statuts (SES) families and risk of being overweight, this may be the first study to use a large sample of mother-child pairs to explore the influence of the joint effect of proximity to urban parks and greenness levels around the child's home and SES on the risk of being overweight/obese in preschoolers.
Data for this study included (1) results of surveys completed by 1489 mothers of preschoolers in Lithuania, (2) level of greenness around each child's home, and (3) the distance from the child's home to the nearest city park. The parent survey, which was based on standardized questionnaires, collected information about each family's socio-demographic characteristics, living environment factors, health behavior, and nutrition. The survey also collected information about the child's age, weight, and height. The researchers used this information to estimate each child's body mass index (BMI) and to identify children who were overweight/obese. The level of greenness around the child's home was estimated using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained from satellite imagery. An urban atlas was used to determine the straight-line distance to the nearest city park. In analyzing the data, maternal education was used as the SES indicator. Ten or fewer years of schooling were coded as a lower level of education; more than ten as a higher level of education. Approximately 80% of the mothers reported having less than 10 years of education.
Analysis of the data found that children living in areas with less greenness exposure and whose mothers have poorer education are at elevated risk of being overweight/obese. The impact of less greenness exposure on the risk of being overweight/obese increased as the distance from the child's home to a city park increased. Higher levels of maternal education decreased the impact of less greenness exposure on the risk of being overweight/obese.
These findings indicate that higher greenness exposure in residential settings may reduce the risk of young children being overweight/obese and that SES and home distance to parks can modify this relationship. These findings support previous research indicating a positive relationship between neighborhood greenness and the health of young children. These findings also support the use of green spaces in preventive health programs, especially when such programs focus on lower educated mothers of young children.
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