Using GIS mapping for childhood obesity policymaking in an underserved community

Established in 2005, the South Phoenix Healthy Kids Partnership is a coalition of agencies and individuals with a mission to promote healthy weight and optimal physical activity among children and adolescents in south Phoenix, a racially diverse, underserved community. As a community surveillance tool, the Partnership has been tracking body mass index (BMI) of pediatric patients at a busy south Phoenix community health center since 2007. To date, more than 4,100 children have been entered into a data registry. Through this registry, the Partnership has ascertained rates of overweight and obesity exceeding 50% among children and adolescents – twice the rate of children and adolescents nationally. These data initially assisted the Partnership in promoting awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic in south Phoenix; however, to better focus education and policy efforts, the Partnership is now entering these BMI data into a GIS database to identify childhood obesity “hot spots” at a census block level. These data have also been overlaid with locations of fast food restaurants, grocery stores and parks to better understand the spatial relationship between obesegenic areas and potential community-level risk and protective factors. This analysis provides important data to support to policy level approaches relating to nutrition (e.g., food deserts and access to fast food) and physical activity (e.g., the built environment). The findings of this analysis and the associated policy implications and policy-level work of the Partnership will be presented.