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Title:

Compact Development and BMI: Environmental Determinism or Self-Selection?

Accession Number:

01623400

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

The literature widely reports a statistical association between urban sprawl and individual obesity. What is less clear is the reason for the association. Is it environmental determinism, that is the effect of the built environment on individual behavior such as physical activity and ultimately weight? Or is it self-selection, that is the tendency of healthy weight individuals to select to live in compact places where they can be more physically active? Or is it some of both? Both theories have been promoted in the literature. This study seeks to address this issue using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The authors study health outcomes and behaviors of survey participants at two points in time, and follow them longitudinally for a six-year time period as they move from place to place. They estimate models for the entire cohort and also for movers and stayers separately. They find evidence mostly of self-selection, and weaker evidence of environmental determinism. The authors find no association between changes in sprawl and the changes in BMI for movers. They find that people of healthy weight are more likely to move in the direction of greater neighborhood compactness, while people who are overweight are more likely to move in the direction of greater sprawl. This is not to say that characteristics of place are unimportant, as society needs to meet the latent demand for walkable places, which are currently undersupplied.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD50 Standing Committee on Environmental Justice in Transportation. Alternate title: Compact Development and Body Mass Index: Environmental Determinism or Self-selection?

Monograph Accession #:

01618707

Report/Paper Numbers:

17-00856

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Ewing, Reid

ORCID 0000-0002-4117-3456

Hamidi, Shima

Pagination:

16p

Publication Date:

2017

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Environment; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-00856

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 8 2016 10:12AM