Citation

Smith M, Obolonkin V, Plank L, Iusitini L, Forsyth E, Stewart T, Paterson J, Tautolo ES, Savila F, Rush E. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(18): e16183375.

Affiliation

School of Sport and Recreation, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16183375

PMID

31547304

Abstract

The research aim was to investigate associations between objectively-assessed built environment attributes and metabolic risk in adolescents of Pacific Islands ethnicity, and to consider the possible mediating effect of physical activity and sedentary time. Youth (n = 204) undertook a suite of physical assessments including body composition, blood sampling, and blood pressure measurements, and seven day accelerometry.

OBJECTIVE measures of the neighbourhood built environment were generated around individual addresses. Logistic regression and linear modelling were used to assess associations between environment measures and metabolic health, accounting for physical activity behaviours. Higher pedestrian connectivity was associated with an increase in the chance of having any International Diabetes Federation metabolic risk factors for males only. Pedestrian connectivity was related to fat free mass in males in unadjusted analyses only. This study provides evidence for the importance of pedestrian network connectivity for health in adolescent males. Future research is required to expand the limited evidence in neighbourhood environments and adolescent metabolic health.

Language: en

Keywords

body composition; diabetes; fat free mass; moderate-to-vigorous physical activity