Neighborhood Built and Social Environment and Physical Activity and Weight Status

描述（由申请人提供）：超重和肥胖是一系列健康问题的风险因素。超重和肥胖的患病率在美国人口的每一部分中都在稳步上升。在寻找导致肥胖流行的因素时，超重/肥胖研究现在集中在饮食和体力活动（PA）之间的平衡。为了解决肥胖流行病，研究人员已经开始探索肥胖相关结果的更广泛的背景决定因素，希望找到促进PA和遏制肥胖上升趋势的新方法。本研究试图通过研究邻里建筑环境和社会人口背景对美国个人PA和体重状况的影响程度来为文献做出贡献。为了指导这项调查，我们采用了社会认知理论和生态模型，并使用多种数据源，包括2000年人口普查数据，基于GIS的数据，从各种来源，其他地方为基础的汇总数据，并连续NHANES从1999年到2008年。我们要求：1）背景建立的环境和社会人口因素如何影响客观和主观测量的PA和体重状况以及个人特征？2)背景建立的环境和社会人口因素之间的相互作用和中介作用是什么？这些观察到的背景效应是否部分由个体心理社会途径介导？3)邻里因素如何与个人因素相互作用，以影响PA和体重状况？4)上述关系对当地社区的地理聚合方法有何敏感性？5)地方邻里之间的空间依赖性如何影响上述分析产生的观察模式？该项目在五个方面超越了目前的研究。首先，它探讨了更广泛的地方为基础的上下文功能在道和县一级。第三，它检查了自我报告和对PA和体重状况的客观评估。第四，它提供了一个独特的机会来检查跨多个层次的互动（例如，个人-邻里，邻里-县）。第五，它测试在这方面的文献，如可修改的面积单位问题和空间依赖问题的研究假设。该项目结合了社会学，城市规划，地理学和空间流行病学的观点;它将这些学科联系起来，制定研究，解决一系列对PA和体重状况的环境决定因素研究至关重要的问题。 公共卫生相关性：本研究探讨了如何在人口普查区一级和县一级的地理和背景因素与个人水平的体力活动和体重在全国样本。将考虑建筑环境和社会人口背景。鉴于美国肥胖流行的上升趋势，近十年来，体重维持和体重减轻的研究、策略和计划已成为高度优先的公共卫生事项。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Overweight and obesity are risk factors for a range of health problems. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been steadily rising among every segment of the U.S. population. In searching for factors driving the obesity epidemic, the overweight/obesity research is now focused on the balance between diet and physical activity (PA). To address the obesity epidemic, researchers have begun to explore the wider contextual determinants of obesity-related outcomes in hope of identifying new approaches to promoting PA and curbing the rising tide of obesity. This study attempts to contribute to the literature by examining the extent to which neighborhood built environments and socio-demographic contexts influence individual PA and weight status in the United States. To guide this investigation, we employ the social cognitive theory and ecological models and use multiple data sources including the 2000 Census data, GIS-based data from various sources, other place-based aggregate data, and continuous NHANES from 1999 to 2008. We ask: 1) How do contextual built environmental and socio-demographic factors affect objectively and subjectively measured PA and weight status over and above individual characteristics? 2) What are the interacting and mediating effects among contextual built environmental and socio-demographic factors in their impacts on PA and weight status? Are these observed contextual effects partly mediated by individual psychosocial pathways? 3) How do neighborhood factors interact with individual factors to impact PA and weight status? 4) How are the above relationships sensitive to geographic aggregation methods of local neighborhoods? 5) How does spatial dependency among local neighborhoods affect the observed patterns produced from the above analysis? This project goes beyond current research in five ways. First, it examines a wider range of place-based contextual features at both tract- and county-levels. Second, it is a national study covering the entire U.S. Third, it examines both self-reports and objective assessments of PA and weight status. Fourth, it provides a unique opportunity to examine interactions across a number of levels (e.g., individual- neighborhood, neighborhood-county). Fifth, it tests under-studied hypotheses in this literature such as the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and the spatial dependency issues. This project combines perspectives from sociology, urban planning, geography, and spatial epidemiology; it bridges these disciplines to formulate research that addresses a set of questions vital to research on environmental determinants of PA and weight status. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study examines how geographic and contextual factors at census tract level and county level are associated with individual-level physical activity and body weight in a national sample. Both the built environments and socio-demographic contexts will be considered. Given the rising tide of the obesity epidemic in the United States, research, strategies and programs for weight maintenance and weight reduction have become a high public health priority in the recent decade.