Lifting the weight off the future: Associations between food environment around schools and professionally measured weight status of k-12 students

Introduction Recent studies show that food environment around schools associates with obesity rates among students. Most existing studies use self-reported weights and heights measures or relatively small samples which often yield potentially questionable results. We examine the association between obesity among public school students and the food environment surrounding their schools using professionally-measured student-level data.

Methods De-identified data were obtained for over 30000 k-12th grade students in 88 public schools located in four New Jersey cities. School-level information was obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics. Food outlets locations (supermarkets, convenience stores, small grocery stores, and limited service restaurants) obtained from commercial sources were geocoded to develop proximity measures. This study assesses associations between students' BMI and proximity to food outlets using multivariate analysis controlling for student- and school-level factors. Data analysis is underway.

Results 44% of the students were overweight or obese. 20.5% attended high schools, 15.1% middle, and 52.1% elementary schools. On average, students had 2.6 convenience stores, 2.9 limited service restaurants, and 0.1 supermarkets within a quarter mile of a school. Multivariate analysis will assess the association between food outlet types around schools and school- and student-level factors and explores types of outlets that are associated with obesity among students.

Discussion This study uses professionally-measured heights and weights for a large sample of students across the full school-age spectrum. It includes a comprehensive set of proximity measures for different types of food outlets. The study's result may provide evidence for changing food environment around schools.