What’s this about?
The Built Environment & Health (BEH) project is an interdisciplinary program of research at Columbia University. Led by epidemiologist Andrew Rundle, BEH uses spatial data to examine the implications of the built environment, including land use, public transit, and housing, for physical activity, diet, obesity, and other aspects of health. With a focus on New York City, BEH research will inform public policy to promote health in the city and metropolitan area. BEH is affiliated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program at Columbia.
Does the Built Environment Influence Diet, Physical Activity and Weight?
With funding from the Obesity and the Built Environment initiative of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, the BEH group is examining the association between built environment characteristics and physical activity, diet, and body size in three samples of New York City-area residents. The project uses three human health datasets. The first includes Cross-sectional baseline data on Body Mass Index (BMI) from the New York Cancer Project, which includes about 18,000 health adult residents of New York City and the surrounding suburbs. The study includes a short survey on demographic characteristics as well as objective measures of height and weight.
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