J Healthy Eat Act Living
June 2025
Neighborhood structural factors are associated with greater feasibility of youth active travel and thus, greater levels of physical activity. However, limited prior work has addressed walkability factors specific to the school neighborhood related to adolescent physical activity during the school day. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two school neighborhood walkability factors (neighborhood density and neighborhood age) and school-related adolescent moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches, including those enacted in early childhood education (ECE) settings, can improve child health outcomes. The use of implementation strategies, or the ways in which these approaches are enacted across settings, may modify intervention impact. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to examine the implementation strategies used among interventions utilizing PSE approaches in the ECE setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoutine youth physical activity (PA) fosters healthy habits and lasting cardiometabolic benefits into adulthood; however, significant disparities in PA persist by race, ethnicity, and income. Active transportation is an optimal intervention target to promote youth PA equity by building transportation self-efficacy skills. Going Places, a multilevel transportation self-efficacy intervention, aims to increase underserved youth PA and cardiometabolic health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment (IHBLT) is recommended for children aged 6-18 years with obesity. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of Fit Together, a health care and parks and recreation partnership to deliver IHBLT.
Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted from 2018 to 2021.
Objectives: This study examined physical fitness differences among Latino youth by place of birth (POB) to inform culturally tailored health promotion strategies.
Study Design: Cross-sectional observational study.
Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the New York City FITNESSGRAM (2006-2019) for public school Latino students (grades 4-5) with objectively measured fitness (n = 376,466).
Obesity (Silver Spring)
February 2025
Objective: We assessed the impact of a food-provisioning intervention on diet quality in children with obesity.
Methods: Participants (n = 33, aged 6-11 years) were randomly assigned to either usual care (intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment) or intervention (usual care + food provisioning; high-fiber, low-dairy diet) for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was a change in child diet quality at Week 4.
Am J Hum Biol
November 2024
Objectives: Preschooler physical activity (PA) is vital for growth and development. The World Health Organization PA guidelines state preschoolers should achieve ≥ 180 min/day of Total PA (TPA) of which ≥ 60 min is moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). A step/day recommendation to match these guidelines may be a more practical metric for caregivers to promote PA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity-based policy, systems, and environmental interventions have the potential to reduce modifiable risk factors for obesity early in life. The purpose of this scoping review was to characterize the breadth, generalizability, and methodological quality of community-based diet and obesity-related policy, system, and environmental interventions during the first 1000 days of life, from pregnancy to 24 months of age. Eight databases were searched, and 83 studies (122 references) were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This paper aims to examine the association between asthma severity and one-year lagged fitness in New York City Public school youth by neighborhood opportunity.
Methods: Using the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 and individual-level repeated measures NYC Office of School Health (OSH) fitness surveillance data (2010-2018), we ran multilevel mixed models stratified by neighborhood opportunity, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, grade level, poverty status, and time.
Background: Neighbourhood factors are associated with cardiovascular health in adults, but these relationships are under-explored in youth.
Objectives: To characterize the associations between neighbourhood factors and child and adolescent health among youth with obesity.
Methods: Data were drawn from patient health records at a pediatric weight management clinic (n = 2838) and the Child Opportunity Index (COI).
Fewer than 1/4th of US children and adolescents meet physical activity (PA) guidelines, leading to health disparities that track into adulthood. Neighborhood opportunity may serve as a critical modifiable factor to improve fitness attainment and reduce these disparities. We drew data from the Child Opportunity Index to examine associations between neighborhood indicators of opportunity for PA and multiple fitness indicators among New York City public school youth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrior investigators have examined the relationship between neighborhood public transportation access and physical activity among adolescents, but research is lacking on the association with obesity in this age group. This study examines the association between neighborhood public transportation access and adolescent BMI using a national sample. We used cross-sectional data from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating study, a national survey (2014) that assessed physical activity and diet, among adolescents (aged 12-17 years, = 1737) and their parents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeighborhood environments can support fitness-promoting behavior, yet little is known about their influence on youth physical fitness outcomes over time. We examined longitudinal associations between neighborhood opportunity and youth physical fitness among New York City (NYC) public school youth. The Child Opportunity Index (COI), a composite index of 29 indicators measuring neighborhood opportunity at the census-tract level, along with scores on 4 selected COI indicators were linked to NYC FITNESSGRAM youth data at baseline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere persistent childhood asthma is associated with low physical activity and may be associated with poor physical fitness. Research on the asthma severity-fitness association longitudinally and across sociodemographic subgroups is needed to inform fitness interventions targeting youth with asthma. We evaluated the relationship between asthma severity (categorized as severe, mild, or no asthma) and subsequent fitness in New York City (NYC) public school youth enrolled in grades 4-12 using the NYC Fitnessgram dataset (2010-2018).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Safe and effective treatment exists for childhood obesity, but treatment recommendations have largely not been translated into practice, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities and low-wealth populations. A key gap is meeting the recommended treatment of ≥26 h of lifestyle modification over 6-12 months. Fit Together is an effective treatment model that meets these recommendations by integrating healthcare and community resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
February 2023
Background: Obesity is associated with poorer youth fitness. However, little research has examined the magnitude of this relationship in youth with severe obesity. Therefore, we sought to determine the relationship between increasing weight status and fitness within a sample of children and adolescents from New York City public schools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild weight status is inversely associated with fitness, but less is known about this relationship across fitness domains. This study examined the longitudinal association between weight status and fitness domains in a large, diverse sample of children. Data were drawn from the New York City Fitnessgram (2010-2011 to 2017-2018).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this study was to examine the association between parenthood and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among a nationally representative sample of United States adults. A cross sectional analysis was conducted with adults aged 20-59 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2016. Adults were classified as parents and non-parents based on the presence of children birth-17 years in the home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
December 2021
Previous efforts to involve parents in implementation of childcare-based health promotion interventions have yielded limited success, suggesting a need for different implementation strategies. This study evaluated the efficacy of an enhanced implementation strategy to increase parent engagement with , . This quasi-experimental study included childcare centers from the second of two waves of a cluster-randomized trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Routine adolescent physical activity is a well-established predictor of positive health across the lifespan, although wide disparities in youth physical activity engagement persist across sex and race/ethnicity. Transportation barriers may be related to adolescents' ability to access physical activity opportunities. This study examines the association between neighborhood public transportation usage and adolescent physical activity using a national sample.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
July 2021
The purpose of this study was to examine associations between screen time (ST) parenting practices and 2-5-year-old children's TV viewing and weight status. Data were collected from 252 parent-child dyads enrolled in a randomized parent-focused childhood obesity prevention trial from 2009-2012. ST parenting practices were assessed at baseline using a validated parent-reported survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Physical activity is strongly associated with health benefits in youth, although wide disparities in physical activity persist across sex, race/ethnicity, and income. Active transportation is an important source of youth physical activity. We aimed to describe active transportation patterns for United States adolescents and young adults ages 12-25 years across sociodemographic and weight status characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, children and families have had to adapt their daily lives. The purpose of this study was to describe changes in the weight-related behaviors of children with obesity after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Semistructured interviews ( = 51) were conducted from April to June 2020 with parents of children with obesity.
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