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Body Mass Index, Safety Hazards, and Neighborhood Attractiveness
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Body Mass Index, Safety Hazards, and Neighborhood Attractiveness

Gina S. Lovasi, Michael D. M. Bader, James Quinn, Kathryn Neckerman, Christopher Weiss and Andrew Rundle
American journal of preventive medicine, v 43(4), pp 378-384
01 Oct 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.06.018
PMID: 22992355
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc3593726View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

General & Internal Medicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine Medicine, General & Internal Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Science & Technology
Background: Neighborhood attractiveness and safety may encourage physical activity and help individuals maintain a healthy weight. However, these neighborhood characteristics may not be equally relevant to health across all settings and population subgroups. Purpose: To evaluate whether potentially attractive neighborhood features are associated with lower BMI, whether safety hazards are associated with higher BMI, and whether environment-environment interactions are present such that associations for a particular characteristic are stronger in an otherwise supportive environment. Methods: Survey data and measured height and weight were collected from a convenience sample of 13,102 adult New York City (NYC) residents in 2000-2002; data analyses were completed 2008-2012. Built-environment measures based on municipal GIS data sources were constructed within 1-km network buffers to assess walkable urban form (density, land-use mix, transit access); attractiveness (sidewalk cafes, landmark buildings, street trees, street cleanliness); and safety (homicide rate, pedestrian-auto collision and fatality rate). Generalized linear models with cluster-robust SEs controlled for individual and area-based sociodemographic characteristics. Results: The presence of sidewalk cafes, density of landmark buildings, and density of street trees were associated with lower BMI, whereas the proportion of streets rated as clean was associated with higher BMI. Interactions were observed for sidewalk cafes with neighborhood poverty, for street-tree density with walkability, and for street cleanliness with safety. Safety hazard indicators were not independently associated with BMI. Conclusions: Potentially attractive community and natural features were associated with lower BMI among adults in NYC, and there was some evidence of effect modification. (Am J Prev Med 2012;43(4):378-384) (c) 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

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53 citations in Web of Science
58 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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