Excesso De Peso, Ambiente Percebido E Privação Social: Um Estudo Da Percepção De Pais Ou Responsáveis

Abstract

Objective: To investigate parents’ or guardians’ perception of their residential proximity to food retailers, leisure areas, and spaces for physical activity according to neighborhood social deprivation, and test associations between the perceived environment and their children’s overweight.Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted with 408 children and adolescents (6- to 15-year-olds) attending public schools in a medium-sized Brazilian city. Data were collected from 2011 to 2014. A telephone interview using a structured research tool determined the presence of overweight and the walking time between the participants’ home and the places evaluated. The indicator of social deprivation adopted was the Health Vulnerability Index. Logistic regression models were constructed to predict the perception of proximity (social deprivation as an explanatory variable) and evaluate perceived environmental factors (explanatory variables) associated with overweight (outcome).Results: Residents of areas with higher social vulnerability showed a probability of perceived proximity 50 to 71% lower to supermarkets, street/produce markets, parks, recreation areas/community centers, and gyms compared to residents of less vulnerable areas. The perceived proximity to parks reduced the chance of overweight in children and adolescents in 73%, with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.27 (95%CI 0.07-0.95; p<0.05).Conclusions: The perceived environment of the residential area infrastructure might be related to neighborhood social deprivation and the presence of overweight in children and adolescents.

Multilevel analysis of factors that influence overweight in children: research in schools enrolled in northern Brazil School Health Program

“…As for food sale, we observed similar results in studies that assessed the relationship between childhood obesity and the environment in which children live, emphasizing that shorter distances to and higher occurrences of places selling ultra-processed food are associated with more monotonous food choices with high caloric density, and, as consequence, with higher prevalence of overweight/obesity [73,74,88]. In Brazil's case, although it is positive that NSFP [82] does not allow food sale in public schools, it is still necessary to propose legal provisions that control food trade in school surroundings [81], including the informal ones.…”

“…Studies have demonstrated that school location is related to the environmental causes of obesity, which impact food access and consumption and physical activity [70][71][72], depending on the availability of leisure spaces and food selling sites [73,74]. Extended school shifts strengthen socialization and cultural diffusion [72,75], contributing to increased body practices [70,72,75], promotion of healthy eating by having 30-50% of meals at schools [2,70,72,76], increased consumption of natural/minimally processed foods, and reduced consumption of their ultra-processed counterparts [72].…”

Potential health-related behaviors for pre-school and school-aged children during COVID-19 lockdown: A narrative review

“…waist circumference and body mass index) and social deprivation in children. Further, less perception of social isolation was associated to less overweight in children (Assis et al, 2018). The possible decrease of physical activity levels, as well as an increase of sedentary behavior could contribute to increase children´s fat percentage during COVID-19 lockdown (Collings et al, 2016;Meredith-Jones et al, 2018).…”