Obesity, Physical Activity and Built Space in New York City

我们建议调查的建成环境的特点对身体的大小，身体活动和饮食的纽约市（NYC）的居民的影响。我们将使用三项大型人类健康研究的数据。第一个数据集将来自1000名黑人和西班牙裔儿童，他们参加了一项前瞻性队列研究。从所有的孩子，我们将有完整的人口统计数据，和母亲的报告的身高和体重和身体活动的孩子。从500名儿童的数据将提供皮肤褶皱厚度，体重指数（BMI）和6天的体力活动监测。将在基线和队列的两次年度随访中获得数据。第二个数据集将来自18，000名成年纽约人，我们将从他们那里获得人口统计数据和客观测量的BMI。第三批将来自2，400名健康的黑人和白人。从这些女性中我们将获得人口统计数据， 问卷调查饮食和体力活动数据，以及通过生物阻抗客观测量BMI、腰围和臀围以及体脂。从所有这些主题，我们将有一个家庭地址，我们将地理编码到一个纽约市的CIS模型。将使用多层次建模方法来确定社区特征（例如：土地使用，街道设计，公园和零售食品店的可用性和质量，分区，公共交通，农贸市场）是否可以预测体型，身体活动和饮食。 由于纽约市的移民人口非常庞大，我们将进行定性研究，探讨文化适应纽约市建筑环境对体型的影响。先前的研究表明，主流美国规范的文化适应导致移民及其子女的体重增加。我们在数据中没有看到这种影响，并提出纽约市不是“主流美国”。我们建议在先行研究中对西班牙裔母亲和儿童进行定性研究，并调查他们与纽约市建筑环境的关系。我们的目标是开发一种新的衡量文化适应的方法，包括适应纽约市的建筑环境，并将在肥胖的研究中有用。定量研究还将用于制定新的基于地理信息系统的城市对母亲重要的方面的措施。 这项关于物理环境及其适应性的研究将确定建立和组织社区的战略，以增加体育活动，改善饮食和减少肥胖。

We propose to investigate the impact of the built environment characteristics on body size, physical activity and diet in residents of New York City (NYC). We will use data from three large human health studies. The first data set will be from 1000 Black and Hispanic children enrolled in prospective cohort study of Head Start families. From all of the children we will have complete demographic data, and mother's reports on the height and weight and physical activity of the child. From 500 of the children data will be available on skin fold thickness, body mass index (BMI) and 6 days of physical activity monitoring. Data will be available at baseline and from two annual follow-ups of the cohort. The second data set will be from 18,000 adult New Yorkers from whom we will have demographic data and objectively measured BMI. The third will be from 2,400 healthy Black and Caucasian. From these women we will have demographic data, questionniare data on diet and physical activity and objective measures of BMI, waist and hip circumference and body fat by bio-impedence. From all of these subjects we will have a home address which we will geocode into a CIS model of New York City. Multi-level modeling approaches will be used to determine whether neighborhoods characterisitcs (for example; land use, street design, availability and quality of parks and retail food stores, zoning, public transport, farmers markets) predict body size, physical activity and diet. Because of the very large immigrant population in NYC we will conduct qualitative research on how acculturation to the built environment of NYC impacts body size. Prior work suggests that acculturation to main stream American norms leads to weight increases in immigrants and their children. We do not see this effect in our data and propose that NYC is not "main stream America". We propose to conduct qualitative research on Hispanic mothers and children in the Head Start study and investigate how they relate to the built environment of NYC. Our goal is to develop a new measure of acculturation that includes adaption to the built environment of NYC and will be useful in studies of obesity. The quantitative research will also be used to develop new GIS based measures of aspects of the City that are important to the mothers. This research on the phsyical environment and adaption to it, will identify strategies for building and organizing communites that increase physical activity, improve diets and reduce obesity.