REPRINT OF: Obesity Relationships with Community Design, Physical Activity, and Time Spent in Cars

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Urban Planning
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Obesity is a global health crisis.
• The link between the built environment and individual obesity risk is not well understood.
• Empirical evaluation at the individual level is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the relationship between residential built environment characteristics and obesity.
• To assess associations with travel patterns (walking, car use), Body Mass Index (BMI), and obesity.
• To analyze these relationships across different gender and ethnicity groups.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 10,878 participants in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Collected data on BMI, travel time, walking distance, and sociodemographics via survey.
• Quantified built environment features (land-use mix, density, connectivity) within 1 km of residences.

Main Results:

• Higher land-use mix significantly reduced obesity likelihood (12.2% per quartile increase).
• Each hour in a car daily increased obesity likelihood by 6%; each km walked daily decreased it by 4.8%.
• Associations between urban form, travel, and weight were stronger in white cohorts compared to black cohorts.

Conclusions:

• Built environment features and travel behaviors are significant predictors of obesity.
• Interventions promoting mixed land use and walking, while reducing car dependence, can combat obesity.
• The impact of the built environment on obesity may differ across demographic groups.