Impact of the Social and Natural Environment on Preschool-Age
Children Weight
- Publication date
- Publisher
- 'MDPI AG'
Abstract
Background: The complex impact of environmental and social
factors on preschool children being overweight/obese is unclear.
We examined the associations between the levels of green space
exposure and the risk of being overweight/obese for 4-6 year-old
children and assessed the impact of maternal education on these
associations. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1489
mother-child pairs living in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 2012-2013. We
assessed children overweight/obesity by standardized
questionnaires using international body mass index cut-off
points, and the level of greenness exposures by
satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
of each child's home and by the distance to a nearest city park.
The maternal education was used as the SES indicator. We used
logistic regression models to investigate the strength of the
associations. Results: Children from families with poorer
maternal education, pathological mother-child relations and
smoking mothers, and living in areas with less greenness
exposure (NDVI-100 m), had significantly higher odds ratios of
being overweight/obese. Lower maternal education and distance to
a city park modified the effect of greenness cover level
exposure on the risk of children being overweight/obese.
Conclusions: Higher greenness exposure in the residential
settings has beneficial effects on children's physical
development. The green spaces exposures for psychosocial stress
management is recommended as a measure to prevent
overweight/obesity among children