Ecological Predictors of Early Childhood Obesity among Participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)

Rates of childhood obesity are higher among ethnic minorities. The macro and micro environments are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in influencing people's lifestyles, risks of developing obesity, as well as disparities in the risk of obesity. The objective of this study is to examine whether neighborhood and home environment characteristics are associated with childhood obesity risk among participants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).;Using the Social Ecological Model, I examine, in three studies, the relationship between the risk of early childhood obesity and the distribution/availability of food outlets, the distribution/availability of parks and recreational facilities, and the factors related to the home environment. For the first two papers, I used ZIP code level health data from the 2008 Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE-WIC) Data Mining Project. I also purchased the InfoUSA Business File from ESRI for data on food retailers and recreational facilities in Los Angeles County. I obtained information on parks from the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks website. For the third study, I used data from the "Risk for Prevention of Early Childhood Overweight: Does WIC Program Play a Role?" study.;For the first two studies, I used geographical information system (GIS) software to map the data and GeoDa software to check for spatial autocorrelation. Controlling for other potential confounding factors, I then used multivariate regression analyses to examine the associations between the risk of early childhood obesity and the Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) (for the first study), and the distribution/availability of parks and recreational facilities (for the second study). For the third study, using SAS, I conducted multivariate regression analyses to examine the association between the risk of early childhood obesity and factors within the microenvironment.;Results from the first study provides evidence for the existence of an obesogenic environment for children in low-income households, a significant role for convenience stores in the neighborhood environment, and the intergenerational nature of the problem of obesity. The second study provides evidence for the differential distribution of activity-friendly resources across neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and indicates the need for a deeper exploration into the domains of physical activity for this particular population, 3- to 4-year-old low-income children. Finally, in the third study, I found that preschool enrollment and limited TV viewing are protective against the risk of early childhood obesity.