Varying age-gender associations between body mass index and urban greenspace

Abstract

Urban greenspace benefits urbanites in numerous ways ranging from regulating flooding, air quality, and local climate to providing opportunities for exercise and relaxation. These benefits may influence human health. Greenspace, for example, may facilitate exercise, thereby helping to reduce body mass index (BMI) and combat obesity, a current epidemic of great public health concern. Little evidence exists to support this assertion, however, and we lack a full understanding of the mechanisms whereby this relationship operates, the populations for whom greenspace is linked to weight status, and the aspects of urban greenspace that are linked to weight status. This study seeks to identify relationships among the composition and arrangement of greenspace and BMI for different populations using regression models for eight age and gender groups in Cleveland, Ohio, US. We find that several greenspace variables are related to BMI for women under 65 years and males under 51 years, but not for older groups, and that the aspects and types of greenspace that are significantly related to BMI vary among groups. Relationships between greenspace attributes and BMI are generally stronger for female groups and for younger groups. Providing access to greenspace with particular attributes such as greenspaces with water, canopy cover, or connected greenspaces could support a healthy weight status for some populations, but these attributes are not consistent across age and gender groups. These results could help to inform policy aimed at designing urban greenspace to benefit the health of different population subgroups.

Associations between Body Mass Index and Urban “Green” Streetscape in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

“…Obesity rates have risen significantly in the last half-century in many countries [ 1 ]. It was estimated that in 2014, approximately 1.9 billion adults were considered as obese [ 2 ].…”

“…Physical inactivity is one of the major causes of obesity [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. The social–ecologic theory of human behavior suggests that some environmental factors in cities influence the likelihood of being physically active [ 1 , 12 , 13 ], which would further influence obesity. These environmental factors include both natural and built environment factors [ 1 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

“…The social–ecologic theory of human behavior suggests that some environmental factors in cities influence the likelihood of being physically active [ 1 , 12 , 13 ], which would further influence obesity. These environmental factors include both natural and built environment factors [ 1 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In a recent article, Sander et al [ 1 ] found varying age–gender associations between body mass index (BMI) and urban green space in Ohio, U.S.…”

“…These environmental factors include both natural and built environment factors [ 1 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In a recent article, Sander et al [ 1 ] found varying age–gender associations between body mass index (BMI) and urban green space in Ohio, U.S. The association between the BMI and the accessibility of urban green space was stronger for women and younger people.…”

Environmental processes of H3N2 influenza genetics and hospitalizations in Minnesota 2012-2013

“…While OLS is a sound statistical method, the assumptions of the model can be broken when studying spatial data. Simultaneous auto regressive models can account for the spatial relationships between places and spatial autocorrelation in the data by defining neighbors and is well documented in research attempting to model spatial processes (Chakraborty, 2011;Hodson & Sander, 2016;Sander, Ghosh, & Hodson, 2017;Sander & Zhao, 2015). Neighbors can be defined as sharing borders (edges or edges and corners), within distance thresholds, k nearest neighbor (KNN), or using other methods.…”