Weight Trajectories Among Youths Following Residential Relocation

Area of Science:

• Environmental epidemiology
• Pediatric health
• Exposome research

Background:

• Childhood obesity is a growing global health concern.
• Environmental factors significantly influence childhood body mass index (BMI).
• Understanding the impact of residential environment changes on BMI is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine associations between residential relocation and changes in childhood BMI.
• To focus on three external exposome domains: air pollution, built environment, and socioeconomic disadvantage.
• To analyze within-individual changes in BMI related to environmental shifts.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal cohort study using data from the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Czech Republic (n=4359).
• Analysis of within-individual changes in BMI (z-BMI) following residential relocation.
• k-Means clustering to characterize exposome domains (air pollution, built environment, socioeconomic status) and fixed-effects linear models.

Main Results:

• Moving to higher-hazard environments (more pollution, more gray space) was associated with increased z-BMI.
• Relocation to areas with more built environment (gray spaces) correlated with higher z-BMI across cohorts.
• Increased air pollution exposure (NO2, PM2.5) was linked to higher z-BMI in one cohort.

Conclusions:

• Relocation to greener, less urbanized environments is associated with healthier childhood BMI trajectories.
• Environmental exposome domains have context-specific influences on childhood weight.
• Findings underscore the importance of neighborhood characteristics for pediatric health.