Risks and Benefits of Green Spaces for Children: A Cross-Sectional Study of Associations with Sedentary Behavior, Obesity, Asthma, and Allergy

• DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1308038
• Publication Date: 2014-08-26T16:09:18Z
• Authors: Payam Dadvand; Cristina M. Villa...; Laia Font-Ribera; David Martinez; Xavier Basagaña; Jordina Belmonte; Martine Vrijheid; Regina Gražulevič...; Manolis Kogevinas; Mark J. Nieuwenhu...
• Keywords: Cross-sectional study; Interquartile range

Green spaces have been associated with both health benefits and risks in children; however, available evidence simultaneously investigating these conflicting influences, especially association different types of greenness, is scarce.We aimed to evaluate greenness children, terms sedentary behavior (represented by excessive screen time), obesity, current asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.We conducted a cross-sectional study population-based sample 3,178 schoolchildren (9-12 years old) Sabadell, Spain, 2006. Information on outcomes covariates was obtained questionnaire. We measured residential surrounding as the average satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) buffers 100 m, 250 500 1,000 m around each home address. Residential proximity green defined living within 300 forest or park, separate variables. used logistic regression models estimate associations separately for exposure-outcome pair, adjusted relevant covariates.An interquartile range increase 11-19% lower relative prevalence overweight/obesity time, but not asthma rhinoconjunctivitis. Similarly, forests 39% 25% time overweight/obesity, respectively, asthma. In contrast, close parks 60% higher had only weak negative obesity/overweight time.We observed two separable patterns estimated greenness.