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The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China

Nowadays, obesity and its associated chronic diseases have become a steadily growing public health problem, spreading from the older to younger age groups. Studies have contended that the built environment, particularly the food environment and walkability, may contribute to the prevalence of childh...

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Autores principales: Zhou, Peiling, Li, Ruifang, Liu, Kun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8350029/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34381750
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688767
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author Zhou, Peiling
Li, Ruifang
Liu, Kun
author_facet Zhou, Peiling
Li, Ruifang
Liu, Kun
author_sort Zhou, Peiling
collection PubMed
description Nowadays, obesity and its associated chronic diseases have become a steadily growing public health problem, spreading from the older to younger age groups. Studies have contended that the built environment, particularly the food environment and walkability, may contribute to the prevalence of childhood obesity. In Asian countries which are characterized by rapid urbanization, high population density and oriental diets, little is known about how such urban built environment affects the onset of childhood obesity. This study juxtaposes the effect of food environment, walkability, and outdoor activity spaces at the neighborhood level upon childhood body weight in a mid-sized city in China. This observational study utilizes a retrospective time-trend study design to examine the associations between neighborhood built environment and children's body weight in Zhanjiang City, a mid-sized city in Guangdong Province, China. Robust multiple linear and logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between the built environments and child BMI and weight status (i.e., overweight/obesity and obesity only). This study finds that: (1) Western-style fast food and Chinese-style fast food have divergent impacts on childhood body weight. At neighborhood level, while increased exposure to Western-style fast food may increase child BMI and the risk of overweight and obesity, increased exposure to Chinese-style fast food, on the contrary, may reduce child BMI and the risk of overweight and obesity, indicating a positive health impact of Chinese-style fast food. (2) However, the positive health impacts brought about by Chinese-style fast food, walkable environments and accessible traditional fruit/vegetable markets have gradually disappeared in recent years. This study is among the first to simultaneously consider the divergent and changing impact of food environment upon childhood body weight in urban China. The findings provide important implications for healthy city design and the management of food retail industry in addressing the obesity epidemic in younger generations living in Asian cities. As prominent differences exist in food culture between Asian and Western cities, more attention should be paid to healthy food environment in future studies and related urban planning strategies formulation.
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spelling pubmed-83500292021-08-10 The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China Zhou, Peiling Li, Ruifang Liu, Kun Front Public Health Public Health Nowadays, obesity and its associated chronic diseases have become a steadily growing public health problem, spreading from the older to younger age groups. Studies have contended that the built environment, particularly the food environment and walkability, may contribute to the prevalence of childhood obesity. In Asian countries which are characterized by rapid urbanization, high population density and oriental diets, little is known about how such urban built environment affects the onset of childhood obesity. This study juxtaposes the effect of food environment, walkability, and outdoor activity spaces at the neighborhood level upon childhood body weight in a mid-sized city in China. This observational study utilizes a retrospective time-trend study design to examine the associations between neighborhood built environment and children's body weight in Zhanjiang City, a mid-sized city in Guangdong Province, China. Robust multiple linear and logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between the built environments and child BMI and weight status (i.e., overweight/obesity and obesity only). This study finds that: (1) Western-style fast food and Chinese-style fast food have divergent impacts on childhood body weight. At neighborhood level, while increased exposure to Western-style fast food may increase child BMI and the risk of overweight and obesity, increased exposure to Chinese-style fast food, on the contrary, may reduce child BMI and the risk of overweight and obesity, indicating a positive health impact of Chinese-style fast food. (2) However, the positive health impacts brought about by Chinese-style fast food, walkable environments and accessible traditional fruit/vegetable markets have gradually disappeared in recent years. This study is among the first to simultaneously consider the divergent and changing impact of food environment upon childhood body weight in urban China. The findings provide important implications for healthy city design and the management of food retail industry in addressing the obesity epidemic in younger generations living in Asian cities. As prominent differences exist in food culture between Asian and Western cities, more attention should be paid to healthy food environment in future studies and related urban planning strategies formulation. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8350029/ /pubmed/34381750 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688767 Text en Copyright © 2021 Zhou, Li and Liu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Zhou, Peiling
Li, Ruifang
Liu, Kun
The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title_full The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title_fullStr The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title_full_unstemmed The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title_short The Neighborhood Food Environment and the Onset of Child-Hood Obesity: A Retrospective Time-Trend Study in a Mid-sized City in China
title_sort neighborhood food environment and the onset of child-hood obesity: a retrospective time-trend study in a mid-sized city in china
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8350029/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34381750
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688767
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