title: A study of community design, greenness, and physical activity in children using satellite, GPS and accelerometer data.
abstract: This study examined relationships between greenness exposure and free-living physical activity behavior of children in smart growth and conventionally designed communities. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used to quantify children's (n=208) greenness exposure at 30-s epoch accelerometer and GPS data points. A generalized linear mixed model with a kernel density smoothing term for addressing spatial autocorrelation was fit to analyze residential neighborhood activity data. Excluding activity at home and during school-hours, an epoch-level analysis found momentary greenness exposure was positively associated with the likelihood of contemporaneous moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). This association was stronger for smart growth residents who experienced a 39% increase in odds of MVPA for a 10th to 90th percentile increase in exposure to greenness (OR=1.39, 95% CI 1.36-1.44). An individual-level analysis found children who experienced >20 min of daily exposure to greener spaces (>90th percentile) engaged in nearly 5 times the daily rate of MVPA of children with nearly zero daily exposure to greener spaces (95% CI 3.09-7.20).
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA. ealmanza@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Estela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Almanza
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jerrett
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dunton
authors.forename: Edmund
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Mary Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pentz
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004777:Environment; D004779:Environment Design / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D040361:Healthy People Programs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D011998:Recreation; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017215:Satellite Communications