14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by researchers at the University of Alberta concluded that the BMI of people who chose to move to be closer to outdoor recreation, had increased.
Normally people who live near outdoor recreation facilities should get more physical exercise and have a lower body mass index that others but this new study showed that the reality is the complete opposite.
This research looked at the relationship between the reasons for choosing a neighborhood to live in, the overall physical activity and BMI, and found that those who said they have moved to be closer to outdoor recreation facilities actually had an increase in BMI, over the entire six-year period of the longitudinal study (2002-2008), led by Tanya Berry of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation.
The researchers conducted two studies, one longitudinal (from 2002 – 2008 including 822 participants) and one cross-sectional (2008 with 1505 participants).
They analyzed the relationship between BMI and neighborhood walkability, socio-economic status, reasons for choosing their neighborhood, their overall physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, and demographic variables - age, gender, job status and education.
“(One of the things we analyzed) in this paper was the movers and non-movers,” Berry says.
“Those who had moved over the six years of the study and had indicated that choosing a neighborhood for ease of walking was very important to them had a very stable BMI and didn't change much over the six years.
But the results were rather unexpected: “the more people said they chose their neighborhood because of its access to outdoor recreation, the higher their BMI.
“We can speculate that maybe they're doing it for the kids; maybe they're driving to the outdoor places, and we don't know how they defined 'outdoor recreation.'
“It could be camping and lazing about or it could be cross-country skiing, but we found pretty big differences in their activity output.”
The researcher says that, on the other hand, the link between people who had moved to a walkable neighborhood and BMI was rather clear, and their BMI did not chance.
“For those people who had moved for ease of walking and thought it was important, they were able to maintain their weight, but for those for whom it was not important at all, they showed an increase in BMI and that was matched with the cross-sectional data,” she said.
As you would expect, people in lower socio-economic status (SES) neighborhoods had higher BMIs, and “that's completely consistent with the literature.
“There is so much more access to fast food restaurants; there are fewer grocery stores; it may not very pleasant to be active in your neighborhood.
“Socio-economic status is an important factor and we really should be paying more attention to how to help people in lower SES neighborhoods overcome the barriers they face to health,” adds Berry.
This study is entitled “A longitudinal and cross-sectional examination of the relationship between reasons for choosing a neighborhood, physical activity and body mass index” and it was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.