As childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions, it is critical to devise interventions that target the root causes of obesity and its risk factors. The two main components of childhood obesity are physical inactivity and improper nutrition, and it is becoming increasingly evident that the built environment can determine the level of exposure to these risk factors. Through a multidiscipli...

The purpose of this research was to assess the consistency of associations between neighborhood characteristics and pregnancy-related behaviors and outcomes across four nested neighborhood boundaries using race-stratified fixed-slope random-intercept multilevel logistic models. High incivilities was associated with increased smoking, inadequate weight gain and pregnancy-induced hypertension (PI...

Current urban planning of central neighborhoods is focused on mobility transformation towards more sustainable methods public transportation and walkability that increase social interactions. Central in many cities may suffer from deterioration due to lack personal security result diminished walkability. The might exclude residents those areas create a troublesome circle deterioration, emphasiz...

BACKGROUND Walkability describes the capacity of the built environment to support walking for various purposes. This paper describes the construction and validation of two objective walkability indexes for Sydney, Australia. METHODS Walkability indexes using residential density, intersection density, land use mix, with and without retail floor area ratio were calculated for 5,858 Sydney Censu...

Aim . This study determined the level of public satisfaction with neighborhood design features in Kemerovo Oblast and their connection to cardiovascular disease risk factors. Subjects methods The population included 1,598 respondents aged between 35 70, 491 living rural areas others (1,221 women 477 men). assessment environment was done according residents' subjective opinions about infrastruct...

INTRODUCTION Whether patterns of physical activity in different communities can be attributed to the built environment or instead reflect self-selection is not well understood. The objective of this study was to examine neighborhood preferences and behavior-specific physical activity among residents who moved to a new urbanist-designed community. METHODS We used data from a 2009 survey (n = 4...

INTRODUCTION The benefits of physical activity for health and well-being are well established, yet built environment characteristics in the school neighborhood may constrain students' ability to engage in physical activity and contribute to the considerable variation in physical activity among students at different schools. METHODS Baseline data from the Food, Health and Choices obesity preve...

In many areas urban planners have begun to incorporate physical activity considerations into neighborhood design. But simply designing cities that encourage people to be more physically active may not go far enough to protect the population from heart disease, according to a study that compares the relative risks of inactivity and air pollution exposure within a large metropolitan population [E...

BACKGROUND Walking is a preferred, prevalent and recommended activity for aging populations and is influenced by the neighborhood built environment. To study this influence it is necessary to differentiate whether walking occurs within or outside of the neighborhood. The Neighborhood Physical Activity Questionnaire (NPAQ) collects information on setting-specific physical activity, including wal...