Association between childhood obesity and environmental characteristics: Testing a multidimensional environment index using census data

Childhood obesity is increasing worldwide and evidence suggests that it might be partially explained by environmental characteristics namely social and built features. This study main goal was to create a multidimensional environment index comprising both social and built environment features and to examine if there were differences in children's weight status regarding the characteristics of the place they live in. Overall, the proportions of boys with overweight/obesity were significantly higher in the Socioeconomic Vulnerable Areas which comes in line with previous evidence. We consider that the territorial categorization proposed is an added value for the so-called “healthy urban planning”, once it identifies priority areas to tackle health inequalities.