Effects of A Smart Growth Community on Prevention of Family Obesity Risks

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• To evaluate the effects of the whole set as well as individual smart growth principles on prevention of obesity risk in middle, moderately low, and low-income families who reside in a smart growth community, the Preserve, compared to two types of control groups of families who reside in other communities that may naturally vary in exposure to these principles.
• To evaluate the longitudinal-mediational relationship between increased activity and pro-health attitudes achieved in the smart growth community to lower obesity risk.
• To identify trajectories of physical activity over time and evaluate their relationship to obesity risk, including high-stable, early-onset stable, early-onset short-term, and low-stable trajectories.

Secondary (exploratory)

• To evaluate demographic x type of community (smart growth vs other) interactions (with the major ethnic groups representing Hispanic vs white), gender, parent vs child on outcomes, as well as on obesogenic trajectories.
• To evaluate a possible "chaining" or translational effect, i.e., whether effects of living in a smart growth community generalize to changes in eating behavior as part of a general change in health attitudes.
• To assess whether neighborhoods where physical activity actually takes place (defined as 0.5 square-mile area and 10-15 walking distance from residence, school [for children], work or equivalent [for index adult], and leisure), contribute significantly to physical activity and eating behavior beyond the effect of smart growth community residence.
• To determine whether some individual smart growth principles may have a relatively greater impact on obesity risk than others, in both intervention and control communities.
• To assess whether physical activity trajectories other than those hypothesized can be identified for their predictive relationship to obesity prevention.