Associations of perceived neighbourhood safety from traffic and crime with overweight/ obesity among South African adults of low socioeconomic status

dc.contributor.authorMalambo, Pasmore
dc.contributor.authorDe Villiers, Anniza
dc.contributor.authorLambert, Estelle V.
dc.contributor.authorPuoane, Thandi
dc.contributor.authorKengne, Andre P.
dc.date.accessioned2018-11-19T09:07:07Z
dc.date.available2018-11-19T09:07:07Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND The relationship between perceived neighbourhood safety from traffic and crime with overweight/ obesity can provide intervention modalities for obesity, yet no relevant study has been conducted in sub-Saharan African contexts. We investigated the association between perceived neighbourhood safety from traffic and crime with overweight/obesity among urban South African adults. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 354 adults aged ~35 years drawn from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) cohort study. The Neighborhood Walkability Scale- Africa (NEWS-A) was used to evaluate the perceived neighbourhood safety. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to examine the associations between perceived neighborhood safety and overweight/obesity defined “normal weight” and “overweight/obese” using the 25 Kg/m2 cutoff criterion. RESULTS In the overall sample, adults who agreed that “the speed of traffic on most nearby roads in their neighborhood was usually slow” were less likely to be overweight/obese (adjusted OR = 0.42; 95%CI 0.23–0.76). Those who agreed that “there was too much crime in their neighborhood to go outside for walks or play during the day” were more likely to be overweight/ obese (OR = 2.41; 1.09–5.29). These associations were driven by significant associations in women, and no association in men, with significant statistical interactions. CONCLUSION Perceived neighborhood safety from traffic and crime was associated with overweight/obesity among South African adults. Our findings provide preliminary evidence on the need to secure safer environments for walkability. Future work should also consider perceptions of the neighbourhood related to food choice.en_US
dc.description.accreditationISI
dc.identifier.citationMalambo, P. et al. (2018). Associations of perceived neighbourhood safety from traffic and crime with overweight/obesity among South African adults of low-socioeconomic status. PLoS ONE, 13(10): e0206408.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0206408
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/4209
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterFALSE
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.rights© 2018 Malambo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.status.ispeerreviewedTRUE
dc.subjectPerceived neighbourhood safetyen_US
dc.subjectTrafficen_US
dc.subjectCrimeen_US
dc.subjectOverweight/ obesityen_US
dc.subjectsub-Saharan African contexten_US
dc.titleAssociations of perceived neighbourhood safety from traffic and crime with overweight/ obesity among South African adults of low socioeconomic statusen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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