Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Childhood obesity is a major public health concern in Canada. Along with many other factors, characteristics of the built environment surrounding children's residential areas may influence risk of obesity. However, the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. To contribute to advance knowledge in this area, we examined associations between four neighbourhood-level built environment features (presence of traffic calming features, presence of pedestrian aids, presence of disorder and presence of physical activity facilities), and four adiposity outcomes (BMI percentile, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, and truncal fat) in children in Montreal, Canada. Our analyses showed that presence of pedestrian aids was significantly associated with all four outcomes. No significant associations between the other three exposures and adiposity outcomes were observed. These findings provide evidence of the potential role of built environments in shaping childhood adiposity outcomes, and suggest that targeting specific components of pedestrian aids at the neighbourhood level may help promote healthy weight-related behaviors among children.