Combating childhood obesity: a survey of laws affecting the built environments of low-income and minority children
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Raymond Lindholm
Abstract
Childhood overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions, with nearly one of every three children in the USA being affected. That factors in the built environment are closely correlated to childhood obesity has become increasingly evident. Negative built environment factors disproportionately affect poor and minority children. This paper examines the current research on the state of childhood overweight and obesity and surveys the built environment factors that have been linked to the problem. Analyzing the built environment from a legal perspective, this paper identifies how zoning, legislation, public/private partnerships, and contracts are being used at the local, state, and federal levels to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Using these tools, local, state, and federal government agencies are increasing access to healthy food, decreasing the density of unhealthy food sources, and increasing physical activity resources for children. Whereas some of the programs are geared toward minority and low-income children, many apply to children across the socioeconomic and demographic spectrum.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Break the cycle of environmental health disparities in vulnerable children
- Environmental health disparities in children
- Review Articles
- Environmental victims: environmental injustice issues that threaten the health of children living in poverty
- Planning for the North Carolina healthy homes initiative
- Combating childhood obesity: a survey of laws affecting the built environments of low-income and minority children
- The role of physical environment on student health and education in green schools
- The relationship between the built environment and birthweight
- Second hand smoke exposure in children: environmental factors, physiological effects, and interventions within pediatrics
- Original Articles
- Mercury exposure education provided by women’s health clinics in Duval County, Florida
- Crawl spaces as reservoirs for transmission of mold to the livable part of the home environment
- The association between urinary concentrations of dichlorophenol pesticides and obesity in children
- Socioeconomic differences and the impact of being small for gestational age on neurodevelopment among preschool-aged children
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Editorials
- Break the cycle of environmental health disparities in vulnerable children
- Environmental health disparities in children
- Review Articles
- Environmental victims: environmental injustice issues that threaten the health of children living in poverty
- Planning for the North Carolina healthy homes initiative
- Combating childhood obesity: a survey of laws affecting the built environments of low-income and minority children
- The role of physical environment on student health and education in green schools
- The relationship between the built environment and birthweight
- Second hand smoke exposure in children: environmental factors, physiological effects, and interventions within pediatrics
- Original Articles
- Mercury exposure education provided by women’s health clinics in Duval County, Florida
- Crawl spaces as reservoirs for transmission of mold to the livable part of the home environment
- The association between urinary concentrations of dichlorophenol pesticides and obesity in children
- Socioeconomic differences and the impact of being small for gestational age on neurodevelopment among preschool-aged children
