2026-04-13T05:46:15Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request
oai:recercat.cat:10230/687022025-12-12T03:45:58Zcom_2072_6col_2072_452952
RECERCAT author Descarpentrie, Alexandra author Dargent-Molina, Patricia author Arregi, Ane author Carrasco, Paula author Estarlich, Marisa author Guxens Junyent, Mònica author McEachan, Rosemary R.C. author Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J. author Subiza-Pérez, Mikel author Wright, John author Charles, Marie-Aline author Heude, Barbara author Vrijheid, Martine author Lioret, Sandrine 2024-11-15T07:15:14Z2024-11-15T07:15:14Z2024 Background: Urban environments are characterized by many factors that may influence children's energy balance-related behaviors (EBRBs), but there is limited research on the impact of prospective exposure to multiple urban factors in preschoolers. We evaluated prospective associations between various urban exposures and EBRBs in preschoolers across Europe, with EBRBs considered both individually and combined into lifestyle patterns. Methods: We used data from 4,073 preschoolers (aged 3-4 years) participating in three European cohorts from the EU Child Cohort Network: BiB (United Kingdom), EDEN (France), and INMA (Spain). Eighteen built and food environment, green spaces, road traffic and ambient air pollution exposures were characterized at residential addresses. Various EBRBs were considered as the outcomes including screen time, sleep duration and diet (fruit, vegetables, discretionary sweet foods, sweet beverages) individually and combined into unhealthy lifestyle patterns, using principal components analysis. Associations between urban exposures and outcomes were estimated using a single-exposure analysis and the deletion-substitution-addition algorithm was used to construct multi-exposure models. Results: In multi-exposure models, greater walkability and smaller distance to the nearest road were associated with higher scores on the unhealthy lifestyle patterns. Likewise, greater walkability was associated with higher screen time and more frequent discretionary sweet food consumption. A smaller distance to the nearest road was also associated with lower sleep duration and more frequent sweet beverages consumption. On the other hand, higher levels of street connectivity showed an inverse association with the unhealthy lifestyle patterns. In the same vein, greater street connectivity was associated with decreased screen time. Conclusion: This comprehensive examination of multiple urban exposures indicates that residing in walkable environments and in close proximity to roads in densely-populated areas may not be advantageous for children EBRBs, while residing in neighborhoods with higher street connectivity appears to supposedly be beneficial.Research relating to this work was funded by a grant from the Doctoral Network of EHESP (École des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique). This study received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 733,206 (LifeCycle project) and 874,583 (ATHLETE project). 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Energy balance-related behaviors European birth and pregnancy cohorts Lifestyle patterns Preschool children Urban environment Urban environment exposures, energy balance-related behaviors and their combination in preschoolers from three European countries info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion