Neighbourhood built environment associations with body size in adults : mediating effects of activity and sedentariness in a cross-sectional study of New Zealand adults
Journal article
Oliver, Melody, Witten, Karen, Blakely, Tony, Parker, Karl, Badland, Hannah, Schofield, Grant, Ivory, Vivienne, Pearce, Jamie, Mavoa, Suzanne, Hinckson, Erica, Sweetsur, Paul and Kearns, Robin. (2015). Neighbourhood built environment associations with body size in adults : mediating effects of activity and sedentariness in a cross-sectional study of New Zealand adults. BMC Public Health. 15, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2292-2
Authors | Oliver, Melody, Witten, Karen, Blakely, Tony, Parker, Karl, Badland, Hannah, Schofield, Grant, Ivory, Vivienne, Pearce, Jamie, Mavoa, Suzanne, Hinckson, Erica, Sweetsur, Paul and Kearns, Robin |
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Abstract | Background: The aim of this study was to determine the associations between body size and built environment walkability variables, as well as the mediating role of physical activity and sedentary behaviours with body size. Methods: Objective environment, body size (body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC)), and sedentary time and physical activity data were collected from a random selection of 2033 adults aged 20–65 years living in 48 neighbourhoods across four New Zealand cities. Multilevel regression models were calculated for each comparison between body size outcome and built environment exposure. Results and Discussion: Street connectivity and neighborhood destination accessibility were significant predictors of body size (1 SDchange predicted a 1.27 to 1.41 % reduction in BMI and a 1.76 to 2.29 % reduction in WC). Significant relationships were also observed for streetscape (1 SD change predicted a 1.33 % reduction in BMI) anddwelling density (1 SD change predicted a 1.97 % reduction in BMI). Mediation analyses revealed asignificant mediating effect of physical activity on the relationships between body size and street connectivity and neighbourhood destination accessibility (explaining between 10.4 and 14.6 % of the total effect). No significant mediating effect of sedentary behaviour was found. Findings from this cross-sectional study of a random selection of New Zealand adults are consistent with international research. Findings are limited to individual environment features only; conclusions cannot be drawn about the cumulative and combined effect of individual features on outcomes. Conclusions: Built environment features were associated with body size in the expected directions. Objectively-assessed physical activity mediated observed built environment-body size relationships. |
Keywords | obesity; epidemiology; physical activity; geographic information systems; body mass index; urban design; walkability; New Zealand |
Year | 01 Jan 2015 |
Journal | BMC Public Health |
Journal citation | 15, pp. 1-11 |
Publisher | BioMed Central |
ISSN | 1471-2458 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2292-2 |
Web address (URL) | https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-2292-2 |
Open access | Open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 1-11 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 24 Sep 2015 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 16 Sep 2015 |
Deposited | 06 Jun 2024 |
Additional information | © 2015 Oliver et al. |
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to | |
We thank all members of the Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods (URBAN) team, as well as the study participants, for their contributions to the research. The URBAN Study was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. The authors are independent of the funder, and the funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study or in the preparation of the manuscript. | |
Place of publication | United Kingdom |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/90861/neighbourhood-built-environment-associations-with-body-size-in-adults-mediating-effects-of-activity-and-sedentariness-in-a-cross-sectional-study-of-new-zealand-adults
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Publisher's version
OA_Mavoa_2015_Neighbourhood_built_environment_associations_with_body.pdf | |
License: CC BY 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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