SSM: Population Health (Apr 2018)

Urban green space and obesity in older adults: Evidence from Ireland

  • Seraphim Dempsey,
  • Seán Lyons,
  • Anne Nolan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.01.002
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4
pp. 206 – 215

Abstract

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We examine the association between living in an urban area with more or less green space and the probability of being obese. This work involves the creation of a new dataset which combines geo-coded data at the individual level from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing with green space data from the European Urban Atlas 2012. We find evidence suggestive of a u-shaped relationship between green space in urban areas and obesity; those living in areas with the lowest and highest shares of green space within a 1.6 km buffer zone have a higher probability of being classified as obese (BMI ⩾30). The unexpected result that persons in areas with both the lowest and highest shares of green space have a higher probability of being obese than those in areas with intermediate shares, suggests that other characteristics of urban areas may be mediating this relationship. Keywords: Objective obesity measures, BMI, Green spaces, Urban green space