Smart cities, healthy kids: the association between neighbourhood design and children's physical activity and time spent sedentary

Objectives: To determine whether, and to what extent, a relation exists between neighbourhood design and children's physical activity and sedentary behaviours in Saskatoon. Methods: Three neighbourhood designs were assessed: 1) core neighbourhoods developed before 1930 that follow a grid pattern, 2) fractured-grid pattern neighbourhoods that were developed between the 1930s and mid-1960s, and 3) curvilinear-pattern neighbourhoods that were developed between the mid-1960s through to 1998. Children aged 10-14 years (N=455; mean age 11.7 years), grouped by the neighbourhoods they resided in, had their physical activity and sedentary behaviour objectively measured by accelerometry for 7 days. ANCOVA and MANCOVA (multivariate analysis of covariance) models were used to assess group differences (p Results: Group differences were apparent on weekdays but not on weekend days. When age, sex and family income had been controlled for, children living in fractured-grid neighbourhoods had, on average, 83 and 55 fewer accelerometer counts per minute on weekdays than the children in the core and curvilinear-pattern neighbourhoods, respectively. Further analyses showed that the children in the fractured-grid neighbourhoods accumulated 15 and 9 fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and had a greater time spent in sedentary behaviour (23 and 17 minutes) than those in core and curvilinear-pattern neighbourhoods, respectively. Conclusion: These data suggest that in Saskatoon there is a relation between neighbourhood design and children's physical activity and sedentary behaviours. Further work is needed to tease out which features of the built environments have the greatest impact on these important lifestyle behaviours. This information, offered in the context of ongoing development of neighbourhoods, as we see in Saskatoon, is critical to an evidenceinformed approach to urban development and planning. Key words: Urban; built environment; accelerometer; lifestyle; city planning Objectifs: Determiner s'il existe une relation, et si oui de quelle ampleur, entre, d'une part, la conception du quartier et, d'autre part, l'activite physique et les comportements sedentaires des enfants a Saskatoon. Methode : Trois types de quartiers ont ete evalues : 1) les quartiers du centre-ville datant d'avant 1930, a l'agencement quadrille, 2) les quartiers scindes a agencement quadrille datant des annees 1930 au milieu des annees 1960 et 3) les quartiers a agencement curviligne datant du milieu des annees 1960 a 1998. Nous avons mesure objectivement par accelerometrie, pendant 7 jours, l'activite physique et les comportements sedentaires d'enfants de 10 a 14 ans (N=455; age moyen 11,7 ans), regroupes selon leur quartier domiciliaire. Des modeles ANCOVA et MANCOVA (analyse multivariee de la covariance) ont servi a l'evaluation des differences entre les groupes (p Resultats : Nous avons constate des differences entre les groupes les jours de semaine, mais non les samedis et dimanches. Apres ajustement selon l'age, le sexe et le revenu familial, les enfants habitant des quartiers scindes a agencement quadrille enregistraient en moyenne 83 et 55 points d'accelerometre de moins par minute les jours de semaine que les enfants des quartiers du centre-ville et des quartiers a agencement curviligne, respectivement. Une analyse plus poussee a montre que les enfants des quartiers scindes a agencement quadrille accumulaient 15 et 9 minutes de moins d'activite physique moderee a vigoureuse par jour et consacraient plus de temps a des comportements sedentaires (23 et 17 minutes) que ceux des quartiers du centre-ville et des quartiers a agencement curviligne, respectivement. Conclusion : Ces donnees montrent qu'a Saskatoon, il y a une relation entre la conception des quartiers et l'activite physique et les comportements sedentaires des enfants. Il faudrait pousser la recherche pour << demeler >> quelles caracteristiques des milieux batis ont le plus d'impact sur ces importants comportements lies au mode de vie. Cette information, presentee dans le contexte du developpement en cours des quartiers, comme on le voit a Saskatoon, est essentielle a une demarche de planification et de developpement urbain fondee sur des preuves. Mots cles : urbain; milieu bati; accelerometre; mode de vie; urbanisme 3):S22-S28. La traduction du resume se trouve a la fin de l'article. Can J Public Health 2012;103(Suppl.
The increased concern over escalating levels of chronic disease and the emergence of the smart growth movement has yielded a series of studies investigating how aspects of the built environment [...]