Urban environment and green spaces as factors influencing sedentary behaviour in school-aged children

Abstract

Urban environment has been increasingly recognised as a health determinant able to promote healthy or unhealthy lifestyles. The growing use of technology and urbanization is influencing people behaviours, making them more sedentary. In children, this may be even more relevant as childhood is a critical period for creating bases for lifelong health and well-being. Given the potential for the urban environment to influence health, we investigated the association between some key characteristics of the urban environment and sedentary behaviour in school-aged children. We recruited 331 healthy children (9–11 years, 52% males), whose parents were asked to quantify their time spent in several sedentary activities. We derived two sedentary behaviour outcomes: the total daily sedentary time and the screen time. Exposure to less urbanized and more vegetated area was derived by combining key environmental attributes using Principal Component Analysis. Independently of age, sex and BMI children living in less urbanized and more vegetated areas reported 12 min less of daily sedentary time (β: −12, 95% CI from −22 to −2; p = 0.02) and were less likely to exceed the recommended daily screen time (2 h/day) (OR: 0.86 95% CI 0.74–1, 00; p = 0.056). A stronger association was found in children whose mothers were highly educated, suggesting that maternal education level acts as effect modifier. Our findings highlight that environmental characteristics may shape children’s health by influencing their lifestyles, and should be considered in Public Health strategy to prevent sedentary behaviour and promote more sustainable and healthier cities.