Simulating the Impact of Crime on African American Women's Physical Activity and Obesity
Authored by Bruce Y Lee, Shawn T Brown, Marie C Ferguson, Daniel L Hertenstein, Eli Zenkov, Michelle S Wong, Tiffany M Powell-Wiley, Joel Adu-Brimpong, Samantha Thomas, Dana Sampson, Chaarushi Ahuja, Joshua Rivers
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1002/oby.22040
Sponsors:
United States National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of
crime on physical activity location accessibility, leisure-time physical
activity (LTPA), and obesity among African American women.
Methods: An agent-based model was developed in 2016 to represent
resource-limited Washington, DC, communities and their populations to
simulate the impact of crime on LTPA and obesity among African American
women under different circumstances.
Results: Data analysis conducted between 2016 and 2017 found that in the
baseline scenario, African American women had a 25\% probability of
exercising. Reducing crime so more physical activity locations were
accessible (increasing from 10\% to 50\%) decreased the annual rise in
obesity prevalence by 2.69\%. Increasing the probability of African
American women to exercise to 37.5\% further increased the impact of
reducing crime on obesity (2.91\% annual decrease in obesity
prevalence).
Conclusions: These simulations showed that crime may serve as a barrier
to LTPA. Reducing crime and increasing propensity to exercise through
multilevel interventions (i.e., economic development initiatives to
increase time available for physical activity and subsidized health
care) may promote greater than linear declines in obesity prevalence.
Crime prevention strategies alone can help prevent obesity, but
combining such efforts with other ways to encourage physical activity
can yield even greater benefits.
Tags
health
time
Association
Body-mass index
Safety
Barriers
Of-the-literature
Light-rail construction
Neighborhood crime
Exercise