Research Shows U.S. Cities Are Making Children Obese

Research by Associate Teaching Professor Kristen Kurland demonstrates that urban neighborhoods lack adequate space for physical activity and healthy food choices for children, contributing to the high rate of childhood obesity. Her studies recommend ways to modify cities' built environment and reduce the tremendous costs of this growing problem.

Kurland leads an interdisciplinary team from Carnegie Mellon, Highmark Insurance, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Children's Hospital. In an effort to better understand obesity in targeted areas, the team mapped low-income urban neighborhoods, focusing on food sources, parks and fields, sidewalk conditions, neighborhood amenities, and safety and demographic information like race and income. The team also created Geographical Information System (GIS) maps that show a five- and 10-minute walking radius of a school.

The research reveals that the way cities are built influences children's weight. Prominent factors include how much exercise they receive and what food sources are nearby.

"As a child, I walked to the local corner market with my friends to buy penny candy and spent endless summer hours playing outdoors. Neighborhoods have changed much since I was young, both physically and socially. These changes to the built environment have been a major factor in today¹s lack of healthy lifestyles, leading to such conditions as childhood obesity," Kurland said.

"This is why our interdisciplinary team has come together, to improve the physical design as well as the social and economic development of communities. This will result in healthy, sustainable places where we all want to live," she said.

Obesity is an increasingly prevalent and chronic disease, climbing at a rate seen only with infectious diseases. Most healthcare experts agree that multiple factors are responsible for obesity. Among them is the declining amount of physical activity in daily life, which is affected by the natural and built environment. In fact, many grants awarded to combat obesity now require input and research by interdisciplinary teams of healthcare scientists and architects.

Kurland holds a joint faculty appointment in Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. She teaches courses in GIS, computer-automated facilities management software, public policy and infrastructure planning to executive physicians in the Heinz School's Master of Medical Management program.

Kurland and her team will present their research at Highmark's Childhood Obesity Summit from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sept. 16 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. The summit provides an opportunity for professionals to showcase and discuss collaborative solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. Kurland is part of the summit's Data Collection and Mapping Committee.