Aspects of the home and neighborhood environments associated with weight status in West Virginia pre-school children

Objective: Recent research has identified characteristics of nutrition and physical activity environments that may contribute to childhood obesity. The present study aimed to assess independent associations between home and community environments and weight status in pre-school children.

Design: Parents of 114 pre-kindergarten children (n-154), participants in the West Virginia Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Project, completed surveys to assess behavioral and environmental contributors to child weight.  Neighborhood and home environments were assessed using the Twin Cities Walking Survey and the Family Food Environment Survey. Household food expenditures over the past 30 days, parent history of overweight, child birth weight and household socio-demographic characteristics were also reported. Height and weight of subject children were directly measured as was the local food environment using the Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for Stores and Restaurants. Stepwise linear regression was used to investigate associations between child BMI percentile and characteristics of the home and neighborhood physical activity and nutrition environments.

Results: The cohort of children was predominantly white (87%), most (78%) were 4 years of age, and 57% were male. A third of the children were either overweight or obese. The final model accounted for 49% of the variation in BMI percentile (adjusted R²= 0 40).  Aspects of the home environment accounted for 28% of explained variance, neighborhood characteristics 38%, heritable factors 28%. These findings were independent of area- and household-level income.

Conclusions: Characteristics of home and neighborhood environments may be important influences on eating and physical activity behaviors in families of very young children.