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There is evidence that the built environment can promote unhealthy habits which may increase the risk for obesity among adolescents. However, the majority of evidence is from North America, Europe and Australia, and less is known about other world regions. The purpose of this study was to examine how the number of overweight and obese adolescents may vary in relation to the built environment, area socioeconomic status (SES), physical activity (PA) and nutritional home environment. We performed a telephone survey of 904 adolescents ages 15–18 from three different cities in Israel. The questionnaire included: reported PA, sedentary behaviors and nutritional home environment. Body Mass Index (BMI) was attained from records of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS). The built environment measures were calculated by Geographic Information System (GIS). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify variables associated with adolescents’ overweight and obesity. The highest level of overweight and obese adolescents was in Beer Sheva (29.2%). The three cities did not differ in built environment characteristics, PA and sedentary behaviors. In Haifa, a more positive nutritional home environment was reported (p = 0.001). Boys, in all three cities presented higher rates of overweight and obesity (29%). After adjusting for covariates, adolescents’ overweight and obesity was associated with built environment measures only in a low SES peripheral city (OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.56–0.92), and positively associated with higher level of sedentary behavior in the total sample (OR = 1.23; 95% CI:1.03–1.47). This may imply a much more complex causal pathway between the built environment, SES and obesity than suggested in previous literature.

Bikesharing is an affordable mode of transportation and a potential tool to reduce car usage in cities. However, in many cities, bikesharing seems to be used mostly by affluent populations. Indego, Philadelphia’s bikeshare, embraced the promotion of equity as part of its primary goals. While previous measures were not adequate for that cause, Indego decided to integrate e-bikes into its system to promote usage among current non-users. In this study, I examine how the integration of e-bikes influences Indego’s usage in disadvantaged areas. For that purpose, I combined official publicly available data using spatial analysis methods. Furthermore, I used random forest and spatial negative binomial regression to examine factors associated with shared bicycle and e-bike usage in Philadelphia. The findings show that e-bikes increase the overall usage of Indego, specifically in disadvantaged areas. In these regions, the users use shared e-bikes for commute, leisure, and other utilitarian purposes, while in the rest of the city, users use e-bikes mainly for commuting. I conclude that the integration of e-bikes was successful in promoting bikesharing usage in disadvantaged areas.

During the study period 195 943 newborns met the inclusion criteria, of which 2.0% (n¼ 4,072) and 2.9% (n¼5,684) were in pregnancies diagnosed with oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios, respectively. Children exposed to isolated amniotic fluid disorders had significantly higher rates of endocrine related morbidity; and specifically diabetes mellitus and childhood obesity (Table). A Kaplan Meier curve demonstrated that children exposed to oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios had higher cumulative incidence of endocrine morbidity (log-rank test p<0.001, Figure). In the Cox regression model, while controlling for maternal age, parity, obesity, induction of labor, preterm delivery, caesarean section birth weight, and fetal gender, both oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios were found to be independently associated with long-term endocrine morbidity of the offspring. CONCLUSION: In utero exposure to isolated amniotic fluid abnormalities is independently associated with long-term endocrine morbidity in the offspring.