Neighborhoods and obesity in pre-adolescent girls: part II
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Obesity is an important predictor of breast cancer. Girls who are overweight or obese are more likely to become overweight or obese women and childhood obesity may lead to earlier pubertal development, which is itself a risk factor for adult breast cancer. Obesity is generally understood to be the result of eating poorly and not exercising. However, girls’ eating and exercise habits are very much influenced by their home and school environments. These environments are in part a product of city planning policies and the types of neighborhood services and stores the girls and their families may have access to. This continuation of a previous CBCRP IDEA grant seeks to investigate the association between neighborhood environment (e.g. food stores, fast food chains, parks, traffic conditions) and girls’ growth patterns and the development of obesity.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This project will examine 7-year-old girls who are being followed as part of an ongoing 5-year longitudinal study of, the Community Study of Young Girls’ Nutrition, Environment, and Transitions (CYGNET). CYGNET recruited 444 girls who live in Northern California and are members of Kaiser Permanente. The goal of the CYGNET study is to identify environmental and biologic precursors to breast cancer. Our study will link three types of information about the girls’ neighborhoods to the data already being collected for the CYGNET. In part I (previously funded IDEA project), we visited the girls’ neighborhoods to collect information about the food resources, recreational facilities, and other conditions in the area relevant to diet and physical activity, such as “hazards” that preclude outdoor activities (e.g. lack of sidewalks, poor upkeep). In part II (continuation project), we will link in data from a unique comprehensive database of stores and services. Part I data are available for half of the sample. For Part II, data from the comprehensive database will be available for the entire CYGNET sample. Also for Part II, we will have access to the CYGNET questions on perceived neighborhood environment and the perspectives of the girls’ primary caregivers. With these three data sources, we can see which aspects of neighborhood are particularly influential. With the comprehensive database information, we can also look at the implications of the presence of services beyond ¼ mile from the girls’ homes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Our study has three innovative elements. First, the study will make use of a newly developed database on stores, services, and conditions in California. This is the first comprehensive spatial database that we know of being applied to a health research project. Second, the study can investigate different roles of various aspects of neighborhood environment such physical characteristics (e.g. sidewalks, speed bumps), services and stores (e.g. location, distance, and access), and perceptions of neighborhood (e.g. availability of and satisfaction with recreational resources). Third, this study will link myriad data on individual, social, environmental, and biologic precursors to breast cancer to information about neighborhood and policy factors.