The Built Environment and Pediatric Health

Built environment and childhood obesity

Childhood obesity, an escalating global health challenge, is intricately linked to the built environment in which children live, learn, and play. This review and perspective examined the multifaceted relationship between the built environment and childhood obesity, offering insights into potential interventions for prevention. Factors such as urbanization, access to unhealthy food options, sedentary behaviors, and socioeconomic disparities are critical contributors to this complex epidemic. Built environment encompasses the human-modified spaces such as homes, schools, workplaces, and urban areas. These settings can influence children's physical activity levels, dietary habits, and overall health. The built environment can be modified to prevent childhood obesity by enhancing active transportation through the development of safe walking and cycling routes, creating accessible and inviting green spaces and play areas, and promoting healthy food environments by regulating fast-food outlet density. School design is another area for intervention, with a focus on integrating outdoor spaces and facilities that promote physical activity and healthy eating. Community engagement and education in reinforcing healthy behaviors is necessary, alongside the potential of technology and innovation in encouraging physical activity among children. Policy and legislative support are crucial for sustaining these efforts. In conclusion, addressing the built environment in the fight against childhood obesity requires the need for a comprehensive, multipronged approach that leverages the built environment as a tool for promoting healthier lifestyles among children, ultimately paving the way for a healthier, more active future generation.

The Built Environment and Pediatric Health

Buildings, parks, and roads are all elements of the "built environment," which can be described as the human-made structures that comprise the neighborhoods and communities where people live, work, learn, and recreate (https://www.epa.gov/smm/basic-information-about-built-environment). The design of communities where children and adolescents live, learn, and play has a profound impact on their health. Moreover, the policies and practices that determine community design and the built environment are a root cause of disparities in the social determinants of health that contribute to health inequity. An understanding of the links between the built environment and pediatric health will help to inform pediatricians' and other pediatric health care professionals' care for patients and advocacy on their behalf. This policy statement outlines community design solutions that can improve pediatric physical and mental health, and improve health equity. It describes opportunities for pediatricians and the health care sector to incorporate this knowledge in patient care, as well as to play a role in advancing a health-promoting built environment for all children and families. The accompanying technical report reviews the range of pediatric physical and mental health conditions influenced by the built environment, as well as historical and persistent effects of the built environment on health disparities.