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Neighborhood Walkability Index and Its Association With Indices of Childhood Obesity in Bengaluru, Karnataka

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Abstract

Background

The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing in low-middle income countries like India. Built environment features such as walkability can influence weight-related outcomes but data from developing countries are scanty.

Objective

To develop population level walkability index in urban Bengaluru, and examine its association with indices of childhood obesity in school children.

Study Design

Nested cross-sectional study based on a cohort.

Participants

Normal healthy children aged 6 to 15 years from urban schools in Bengaluru. The children were stratified into different land use classification such as residential, commercial and open space based on residential address.

Methods

Anthropometric data, body composition data, measured using air displacement plethysmography.

Outcomes

Walkability index derived using residential density, street connectivity and land-use mix environment variables.

Results

The mean (SD) of age, body mass index (BMI), BMI z-score and percentage body fat (% Body fat) of 292 (50% boys) children were 10.8 (2.9) year, 17.4 (3.3) kg/m2, −0.27 (1.35) and 20.9% (8.8), respectively. The mean (SD) walkability index was 16.5, which was negatively associated with BMI (slope −0.25 and -0.08) and percentage body fat (slope −0.47 and −0.21) for age 5 and 10 years, respectively in children, but the effects decreased with increasing age.

Conclusions

The findings of this pilot study suggest that the neighborhood walkability may be associated with the obesity indices in younger children. Future longitudinal studies are needed to understand how built environment affects health and body composition of children in India and other low-middle income countries.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Sensing Local foundation, Cooke Town, Bengaluru, India for extracting information from GIS that were required for development of walkability index.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Nutrition, Division of Nutrition, St. John’s Research Institute, St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560 034, India

    Deepa Puttaswamy & Rebecca Kuriyan

  2. Department of Biostatistics, St. John’s Medical College, St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Santu Ghosh

Authors
  1. Deepa Puttaswamy
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  2. Santu Ghosh
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  3. Rebecca Kuriyan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecca Kuriyan.

Additional information

Ethics clearance

IEC, St John’s Medical College Institutional Ethical committee; No. 177/2008, dated Feb 05, 2009.

Contributors

DP: data acquisition, preliminary analysis, interpretation of data, writing original draft; SG: methodology, formal analysis, interpretation of data, writing-review and editing; RK: conceptualization, supervision, analysis, interpretation of data, writing — critical reviewing and editing.

Funding

None

Competing interests

None stated.

Note

Additional material related to this article is available at www.indianpediatrics.net

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Puttaswamy, D., Ghosh, S. & Kuriyan, R. Neighborhood Walkability Index and Its Association With Indices of Childhood Obesity in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Indian Pediatr 60, 113–118 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-023-2807-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-023-2807-1

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