Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Jul 15;21(1):1402. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11475-4.
The home environment is the most important location in young children's lives, yet few studies have examined the relationship between the outdoor home environment and child physical activity levels, and even fewer have used objectively measured exposures and outcomes. This study examined relationships between objectively assessed home yard size and greenness, and child physical activity and outdoor play.
Data were drawn from the HealthNuts study, a longitudinal study of 5276 children in Melbourne, Australia. We used cross-sectional data from a sample at Wave 3 (2013-2016) when participants were aged 6 years (n = 1648). A sub-sample of 391 children had valid accelerometer data collected from Tri-axial GENEActive accelerometers worn on their non-dominant wrist for 8 consecutive days. Yard area and greenness were calculated using geographic information systems. Objective outcome measures were minutes/day in sedentary, light, and moderate-vigorous physical activity (weekday and weekend separately). Parent-reported outcome measures were minutes/day playing outdoors (weekend and weekday combined). Multi-level regression models (adjusted for child's sex, mother's age at the birth of child, neighbourhood socioeconomic index, maternal education, and maternal ethnicity) estimated effects of yard size and greenness on physical activity.
Data were available on outdoor play for 1648 children and usable accelerometer data for 391. Associations between yard size/greenness and components of physical activity were minimal. For example, during weekdays, yard size was not associated with daily minutes in sedentary behaviour (β: 2.4, 95% CI: - 6.2, 11.0), light physical activity (β: 1.4, 95% CI: - 5.7, 8.5) or MVPA (β: -2.4, 95% CI: - 6.5, 1.7), with similar patterns at weekends. There was no relationship between median annual yard greenness and physical activity or play.
In our study of young children residing in higher socio-economic areas of Melbourne yard characteristics did not appear to have a major impact on children's physical activity. Larger studies with greater variation in yard characteristics and identification of activity location are needed to better understand the importance of home outdoor spaces and guide sustainable city planning.
家庭环境是幼儿生活中最重要的场所，但很少有研究调查户外家庭环境与儿童身体活动水平之间的关系，更少研究使用客观测量的暴露和结果。本研究调查了客观评估的家庭院子大小和绿化程度与儿童身体活动和户外活动之间的关系。
数据来自澳大利亚墨尔本的一项纵向研究 HealthNuts，该研究纳入了 5276 名儿童。我们使用了 2013-2016 年参与者 6 岁时（n=1648）的第 3 波（Wave 3）的横断面数据。391 名儿童的亚组有使用三轴 GENEActive 加速度计收集的有效加速计数据，该数据连续 8 天佩戴在非优势手腕上。使用地理信息系统计算院子面积和绿化程度。客观的结果测量是工作日和周末每天久坐、轻度和中度剧烈身体活动的分钟数。家长报告的结果测量是周末和工作日每天户外活动的分钟数。多水平回归模型（调整了儿童的性别、儿童母亲的年龄、邻里社会经济指数、母亲教育程度和母亲种族）估计了院子大小/绿化程度对身体活动的影响。
共有 1648 名儿童提供了户外活动数据，391 名儿童提供了可用的加速度计数据。院子大小/绿化程度与身体活动各组成部分之间的关联很小。例如，在工作日，院子大小与每天久坐行为的分钟数（β：2.4，95%CI：-6.2，11.0）、轻度体力活动（β：1.4，95%CI：-5.7，8.5）或中高强度体力活动（β：-2.4，95%CI：-6.5，1.7）无关，周末也有类似的模式。中位数年度院子绿化程度与身体活动或玩耍之间没有关系。
在我们对居住在墨尔本社会经济水平较高地区的幼儿的研究中，院子特征似乎对儿童的身体活动没有重大影响。需要更大规模的研究，更广泛的院子特征变化，并确定活动地点，以更好地了解家庭户外空间的重要性，并指导可持续城市规划。
