title: Body mass index, safety hazards, and neighborhood attractiveness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neighborhood attractiveness and safety may encourage physical activity and help individuals maintain a healthy weight. However, these neighborhood characteristics may not be equally relevant to health across all settings and population subgroups.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether potentially attractive neighborhood features are associated with lower BMI, whether safety hazards are associated with higher BMI, and whether environment-environment interactions are present such that associations for a particular characteristic are stronger in an otherwise supportive environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survey data and measured height and weight were collected from a convenience sample of 13,102 adult New York City (NYC) residents in 2000-2002; data analyses were completed 2008-2012. Built-environment measures based on municipal GIS data sources were constructed within 1-km network buffers to assess walkable urban form (density, land-use mix, transit access); attractiveness (sidewalk cafés, landmark buildings, street trees, street cleanliness); and safety (homicide rate, pedestrian-auto collision and fatality rate). Generalized linear models with cluster-robust SEs controlled for individual and area-based sociodemographic characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The presence of sidewalk cafés, density of landmark buildings, and density of street trees were associated with lower BMI, whereas the proportion of streets rated as clean was associated with higher BMI. Interactions were observed for sidewalk cafés with neighborhood poverty, for street-tree density with walkability, and for street cleanliness with safety. Safety hazard indicators were not independently associated with BMI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Potentially attractive community and natural features were associated with lower BMI among adults in NYC, and there was some evidence of effect modification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. glovasi@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Gina S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Lovasi
authors.forename: Michael D M
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Neckerman
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rundle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009519:New York City; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012147:Restaurants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012449:Safety; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016138:Walking