Maria Ferrão

Socio-demographic and behavioral risk factors associated with the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Portuguese children.

Childhood obesity is a public health concern in Portugal. Socio‐demographic and behavioral factors are highly associated with obesity but are not clearly understood. This article aims to update the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Portuguese children and to explore the influence and risks of socio‐demographic factors and behavioral factors.

Individual and environmental factors associated for overweight in urban population of Brazil

BackgroundObesity is a significant global public health problem and the main cause of many chronic diseases in both developed and developing countries. The increase in obesity in different populations worldwide cannot be explained solely by metabolic and genetic factors; environmental and social factors also have a strong association with obesity. Thus, it is believed that the current obesity epidemic is the result of a complex combination of genetic factors and an obesogenic environment .The purpose of this study was to evaluate individual variables and variables within the built and social environment for their potential association with overweight and obesity in an urban Brazilian population.MethodsCross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 3404 adults living in the urban area of the city. Information from the surveillance system for chronic diseases of Brazilian Ministry of Health was used and individual data was collected by telephone interviews. The database was geocoded using the Brazilian System of Postal Codes for participant residences. An updated, existing list based on the current addresses of supermarkets and hypermarkets in the city was used as an indicator variable of the availability and access to food. Georeferenced information on parks, public squares, places for practicing physical activity and the population density were also used to create data on the built environment. To characterize the social environment, we used the health vulnerability index (HVI) and georeferenced data for homicide locations.ResultsThe prevalence was 44% for overweight, poisson regression was used to create the final model. The environment variables that independently associated with overweight were the highest population density, very high health vulnerability index and the homicide rate adjusted for individuals variables. The results of the current study illustrate and confirm some important associations between individual and environmental variables and overweight in a representative sample of adults in the Brazilian urban context.ConclusionsThe social environment variables relating to the socioeconomic deprivation of the neighborhood and the built environment variables relating to higher walkability were significantly associated with overweight and obesity in Belo Horizonte.

The associations of SES, obesity, sport activity, and perceived neighborhood environments: Is there a model of environmental injustice penalizing portuguese children?

This study analyses the associations between childrens obesity, sports activity (SA), and perceived environmental characteristics with the childrens SES.

Healthy Places, Healthy People: Living Environment Factors Associated with Physical Activity in Urban Areas

The final years of the 20th century were characterised by the emergence of new sociodemographic profiles in which behaviour-related diseases were increasingly prominent. Societies have now recognised the fundamental role that health-related behaviours – e.g., diet, tobacco consumption and physical activity – play in human health and chronic disease risk. Everywhere, modern societies are becoming more and more sedentary, a trend contributing to the rise in rates of chronic and degenerative diseases such as type 2 diabetes, CVD, hypertension, some types of cancer, musculoskeletal diseases and high blood pressure and cholesterol. Moreover, it appears that sedentary lifestyles also cause a decline in psychological well-being, thereby increasing the risk of mental disorders (Nusselder et al. 2008).

The impact of the environment on levels of childhood obesity: when the territory emerges as a differentiating and risk factor

Na epidemiologia da obesidade, embora recentes investigacoes no campo da genetica revelem a importância dos componentes geneticos na suscetibilidade individual, os fatores ambientais demonstram um efeito mais acentuado. Esta perspetiva socioecologica resulta do brusco aumento da prevalencia de excesso de peso e obesidade que ocorreu em todo o mundo, num curto espaco de tempo, sugerindo uma explicacao que nao e somente, nem fundamentalmente, de indole genetica. Este texto tem como proposito avaliar o impacto dos fatores ambientais no indice de massa corporal da populacao infantil, em idade escolar, residente no distrito de Aveiro. Os resultados obtidos revelaram uma influencia significativa da percecao parental dos atributos do ambiente social, nomeadamente a percecao da inseguranca da comunidade local, no excesso de peso e obesidade.

Neighbourhood environment and childhood obesity: exploratory analyze in Aveiro’s district

Este artigo pretende contribuir para a discussao teorica sobre a relacao entre o clima e a cidade numa perspectiva geografica em que se propoe a possibilidade de se considerar o clima urbano como uma construcao social. Por nao termos a capacidade de lidar com as grandes catastrofes, por variadas limitacoes, a humanidade optou por resignar-se aceitando a vulnerabilidade diante dos eventos de grande magnitude. As cidades, como espacos produzidos, ao mesmo tempo em que criam oportunidades civilizatorias, tambem se transformam em armadilha ambiental. Se a cidade e o habitat da modernidade, se os sistemas urbanos sao altamente complexos e desiguais e, se a atmosfera urbana e o produto da interacao entre as variaveis do clima e as intervencoes socioeconomicas, entao os diversos grupos sociais nao experimentam nem se relacionam com o tempo e o clima urbano da mesma forma. Nesta perspectiva, tem-se que admitir que o clima urbano possa ser interpretado como uma construcao social.

Percepção parental do ambiente de residência e obesidade infantil no Distrito de Coimbra

Obesity is one of the most important health problems in many developed countries. Besides individual factors, neighbourhoods in which people live can influence their behaviour, and health, providing (or not) environmental opportunities to living healthy lives. The aim of this study was to analyse whether parent’s perceptions of local neighbourhood attributes were associated with overweight and obesity among 1885 children aged 3-10 years old living in Coimbra. Data was collected between March to July 2009. Height and weight were measured and IOTF cutoffs to define overweight and obesity were used. Environmental features were assessed through questionnaire (IPS). A Categorical Principal Component Analysis was performed, allowing the extraction of two neighbourhood dimensions which were subsequently used as independent variables in a multinomial logistic regression: one related with physical environment; other related with social environment. Significant associations with parent’s neighbourhood perceptions were found for girls, after adjustment for sex, age and socioeconomic level. These have implications for health and social policy. Enhancing the community’s physical and social environment, e.g., by providing and maintaining safe places for walking and cycling (through supportive infrastructures, social organization and social control) may provide effective ways to shape childrens weight and their current and future health, specially the girls, the most vulnerable group considering weigh gain.