Abstract
BackgroundThe effect of the living environment on public health has received increasingly scholarly attention. This study aims to explore the relationship between adolescents’ body weight and their living environmental factors.MethodsThis cross-sectional study comprised 1362 middle-school students from Nanjing and 826 from Changzhou in China. We further collected information on living environmental factors based on their home address and ran multivariate logistic regressions to explore potential correlations after considering a range of potential confounding factors.ResultsApproximately 25% (n = 303) of students from Nanjing and 26% (n = 205) of students from Changzhou were excessive body weight. In Nanjing, students’ BMI (Body Mass Index) showed a strong negative correlation with the number of sports venues in their neighborhood (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 0.64, 95%CI: 0.40–0.94) after controlling for other covariates. In Changzhou, we observed a positive correlation between adolescents’ body weight and the number of bus stops in their neighbourhood (AOR:1.63, 95%CI:1.11–2.38).ConclusionsThe living environment factors were independently associated with teenagers’ excessive body weight. We hypothesis that the environmental risk factors might be associated with political management, which will consequently affect personal health outcomes. Further research and proactive measures are required to manage those potential risks and attenuate the problem.
Highlights
The effect of the living environment on public health has received increasingly scholarly attention
Excessive body weight was more prevalent in males than females (31% vs 18% in Nanjing, 31% vs 20% in Changzhou) (Tables 1 and 2)
The prevalence of excessive body weight increased with the frequency of consuming barbeque and fried food among Nanjing students (Table 1), which was not observed among Changzhou students (Table 2)
Summary
The effect of the living environment on public health has received increasingly scholarly attention. Over the recent three decades, little progress has been achieved in treating or preventing excessive body weight [2]. Traditional policymakers and doctors [4] just paid attention to the severe obesity patients, ignoring healthcare costs incurred by the overweight group. Huang et al BMC Pediatrics (2021) 21:572 physiological situations with their excessive BMI [4, 6]. Overweight students and their parents, to some extent, did not realize that excessive body weight related to multiple adverse health outcomes, including an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other physical and mental illnesses [7, 8]. The whole range of excessive BMIs should be considered, as opposed to concentrating on the obesity group
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