Abstract

ABSTRACTObjective: 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.

Highlights

  • Obesity in children and adolescents is a public health issue in several countries due to its progressive prevalence increase in recent decades, and for being an important risk factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases, which contribute to reduce life quality and expectancy.[1]

  • The sample design was probabilistic and clustered in three stages: 1. schools: randomly and proportionally selected in each of the seven administrative districts of the city, totaling 36 schools; 2. classes: all classes by grade that met the age group of interest were included; 3. students: randomly and proportionally selected in each grade, totaling 708 students. We considered this number due to possible losses caused by absences on the day of data collection or parents who refused to let their children participate

  • Most participants declared being multiracial (68.4%; n=264) and lived in less vulnerable areas according to their Health Vulnerability Index (HVI) (59.8%; n=244)

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Summary

Introduction

Obesity in children and adolescents is a public health issue in several countries due to its progressive prevalence increase in recent decades, and for being an important risk factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases, which contribute to reduce life quality and expectancy.[1] As a multifactorial disease, besides genetic components and lifestyle habits, family, social, and environmental contexts can be predictors of weight gain.[2]. Regarding the influence of the environment on food consumption, in developed countries, the lower distance and higher density of fast food restaurants and convenience stores in the residential surroundings are associated with more monotonous and highly caloric food choices among children and adolescents.[3] the lack of leisure spaces and facilities can hinder the practice of physical activity.[1] Together, these factors represent an obesogenic behavior and contribute to the increase in obesity prevalence for this age group.[4]. Neighborhoods with greater social deprivation are the most affected, presenting less diversity of trades and services, which is possibly a result of the scarcity of local resources and infrastructure, and high crime rates.[7]

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