Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104200

Deborah A. Cohen, MD, MPH¹, Scott Ashwood², Molly Scott³, Adrian Overton¹, Kelly Evenson, PhD⁴, Carolyn C. Voorhees, PhD⁵, Lisa Staten, PhD⁶, Thomas McKenzie⁷, and Ariane L. Bedimo-Rung, PhD, MPH⁸. (1) Health, RAND Corporation, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405, 310 393-0411 ext 6023, dcohen@rand.org, (2) RAND, 201 North Craig Street, Suite 202, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, (3) UCLA/RAND Center for Adoelscent Health Promotion, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, (4) Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bank of America Plaza, Suite 306, 137 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514, (5) Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, 2312 HHP, College Park, MD 20742, (6) College of Public Health, University of Arizona, PO Box 245158, Tucson, AZ 85716, (7) Center for Behavioral and Community Health Studies, San Diego State University, 9245 Sky Park Court, San Diego, CA 92123, (8) School of Public Health, Epidemiology Program, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1600 Canal Street, Suite 800, New Orleans, LA 70112

Background: The built environment provides opportunities to promote physical activity and reduce obesity. We analyzed data from The Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) to examine whether the environment in which the girls live may be associated with physical activity. Methods: 1,603 sixth grade girls from 36 schools wore accelerometers for 7 days. Girls' addresses were mapped and a ½ mile radius (circular and along the street network) around their home was considered their local neighborhood. Using hierarchical modeling we examined the association of the built environment to the following outcomes: weekly MET-weighted moderate to vigorous (MVPA), light PA, and sedentary PA outside of school hours and BMI. Results:Girls who lived within 1.4 miles of school had 10 more minutes of MVPA/week than girls who lived 2.3 miles from their school and girls with 1 park in a ½ mile radius of their homes had 26 more minutes of weekly MET-weighted MVPA per week than girls with no parks. More fast food outlets were associated with greater sedentary behavior (p <.05) and lower light PA, but not BMI. More connected street design and larger block sizes were associated with higher levels of light PA. Conclusions: Our cross-sectional data support the claim that the built environment may influence healthy behaviors. Parks are a promising means to promote PA.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn
• How to quantify neighborhood exposures to physical activity opportunities.
• What the relationship between proximity to parks, schools, fast food outlets, and street design and physical activity(PA) and BMI is in adolescent girls.

Keywords: Physical Activity, Geographic Information Systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.