The Relationship of Urban Form on Children and Adolescent Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review of Canadian Evidence.

Tona M Pitt,Jason Cabaj,Suzanne Goopy,Gavin R Mccormack,Brent Hagel,Janet Aucoin,Tate Hubkarao

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084180

Abstract

Urban form can have an impact on health outcomes in children, and the synthesis of findings can identify gaps in the literature and regional reviews may help guide policymakers. This study aims to complete a scoping review of the research relating urban form to health outcomes in children and adolescents from urban Canadian settings. Thirteen online databases were searched to identify studies that had objective measures of urban form and health outcomes. Two research assistants independently reviewed 27,444 titles and abstracts, and 176 full-text articles, returning 32 unique studies with youth-specific data. The majority of the included studies were cross-sectional or ecological (n = 26). Six studies used Canada-wide data and the rest were from Ontario (n = 11), Alberta (n = 6), and Quebec (n = 6). Urban form characteristics included neighbourhood food environment (n = 11), parks/natural space/greenness (n = 10), road or intersection characteristics (n = 7), and aggregated urban form measures (n = 7). Studies examined a variety of health outcomes: the majority considered weight status (n = 16) and injury (n = 10). Although there is over-reliance on mainly cross-sectional study designs, there is evidence suggesting that urban form is associated with health outcomes in Canadian youth, with parks/greenspace, road connectivity, and road characteristics most consistently associated with health outcomes in youth.

Highlights

Population-level interventions are needed to reduce the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases that significantly burden provincial healthcare systems [1]
Using a scoping review strategy, we summarized studies investigating the associations between urban form and health outcomes in children and adolescents in Canada
In the Canadian context, associations have been explored between urban form and asthma [27], allergic rhinitis [52], health-related quality of life [58], injury [25,28,29,31

Summary

Methods

To facilitate greater reproducibility and transparency, this review follows the method proposed by Arksey and O’Malley [20] as well as the PRISMA scoping review guidelines [21]. Studies were considered eligible if they included all of the following: a sample recruited from a Canadian population; a focus on the youth population (≤18 years of age); an objective measure of urban form (exposure); and a measure of health outcomes. The objective measure of urban form, for example, might include the density of convenience stores within a 500 m radius of a child’s home. This is in contrast to subjective measures whereby parents or children might report perceptions regarding the walkability of their neighbourhood. Studies with samples that included both youth and adult participants remained in the review if they estimated separate associations between urban form and health among youth

Results

Discussion

Conclusion