Electronic maps pin point childhood obesity areas

Release Date: Oct 25, 2009

According to a visiting Carnegie Mellon University researcher Professor Kristen Kurland, children who live in neighbourhoods with few parks and numerous junk food takeaways, have a higher chance of becoming obese than those who don’t.

Professor Kristen Kurland’s studies using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) recommended ways to modify cities’ built environment and reduce state health costs due to childhood obesity.

GIS are computerized systems designed for the storage, retrieval and analysis of geographically referenced data such as physical, biological, cultural, demographic and economic information.

Professor Kurland presented the latest interdisciplinary research in Adelaide at the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Biennial International Conference on how GIS assists town planners and policy makers to better understand obesity in targeted areas.

Professor Kurland and her team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh mapped low-income urban neighbourhoods focusing on food sources, parks and neighbourhood amenities, safety and demographic information such as ethnicity and income in Pittsburgh.

“With GIS healthcare providers and educators will be able to pin point the geographic areas of high childhood obesity incidence, determine the likely contributing factors and address some of the problems such increasing school exercise programs, building parks or allowing schools without play yards to use local parklands for games,” Professor Kurland says.

“I have also mapped the incidence of high lead levels in children against education neighbourhood income and education levels. As these two variables rise, the incidence of lead poisoning declines – perhaps because parents know more about the problem and can take action,” she says.

Professor Kurland studied patients at a hospital weight management centre in Pittsburgh and found that those who lived near parks were the most successful at losing weight, while those who lived near fast food outlets had the most trouble.

“We studied these kids for five years, tracking whether they’re getting better, tracking things like limiting their fast food, their sweets and beverages,” Professor Kurland says.

“It wasn’t about sports or organised activity but incorporating natural daily activity into people’s lives.”

The South Australian Government’s recently launched its $22.3m Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle program for children and families, aimed at tackling obesity and chronic disease in the community.

The South Australian Minister for Health, John Hill, said recently “A quarter of our state’s children are in the unhealthy weight range, which places them at increased risk of health, emotional and social problems as youngsters and later of course as adults.”

Professor Kurland’s Adelaide conference abstract is at http://www.ssc2009.com/abstract/215.asp.

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