An inequitable distribution of activity-friendly resources in Los Angeles County and its relationship to neighborhood characteristics and childhood obesity among low-income households

Study objectives: This study investigates the association between the availability of recreational facilities or parks and both neighborhood characteristics and obesity among 3- to 4-year-old children who were participants in the WIC program in Los Angeles County in 2008. Methods: Commercial data and parks data were linked to neighborhood demographics and WIC data across 268 ZIP codes. We used geographical information system to map the data per ZIP code. We conducted exploratory analysis using GeoDa to check for spatial autocorrelation. We used multivariate regression analyses. Results: Parks and recreational facilities showed statistically significant clustering patterns. Controlling for other sociodemographic factors, we found statistically significant negative relationships between the number of recreational resources and both race and education. Although there was a trend of higher proportion of obese children in areas with few recreational facilities/parks, controlling for other WIC related variables, we found no statistically significant association between the number of recreational facilities or the number of parks and childhood obesity. We found statistically significant associations between obesity and birth weight, poverty level, education level, closely spaced pregnancies and multifetal pregnancies. Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the differential distribution of activity-friendly resources across neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and indicates the need for a deeper exploration into the domains of physical activity for this particular population, 3- to 4-year-old low-income children.