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- Title
Harvesting More Than Vegetables: The Potential Weight Control Benefits of Community Gardening.
- Authors
Zick, Cathleen D.; Smith, Ken R.; Kowaleski-Jones, Lori; Uno, Claire; Merrill, Brittany J.
- Abstract
Objectives. We examined the association of participation in community gardening with healthy body weight. Methods. We examined body mass index (BMI) data from 198 community gardening participants in Salt Lake City, Utah, in relationship to BMI data for 3 comparison groups: neighbors, siblings, and spouses. In comparisons, we adjusted for gender, age, and the year of the BMI measurement. Results. Both women and men community gardeners had significantly lower BMIs than did their neighbors who were not in the community gardening program. The estimated BMI reductions in the multivariate analyses were -1.84 for women and -.36 for men. We also observed significantly lower BMIs for women community gardeners compared with their sisters (-.88) and men community gardeners compared with their brothers (-1.33). Community gardeners also had lower odds of being overweight or obese than did their otherwise similar neighbors. Conclusions. The health benefits of community gardening may go beyond enhancing the gardeners' intake of fruits and vegetables. Community gardens may be a valuable element of land use diversity that merits consideration by public health officials who want to identify neighborhood features that promote health.
- Subjects
UTAH; NONPROFIT organization statistics; REGULATION of body weight; SIBLINGS; COMPARATIVE studies; CONFIDENCE intervals; EPIDEMIOLOGY; FOOD habits; GENEALOGY; GENETIC techniques; HORTICULTURE; INGESTION; EVALUATION of medical care; MULTIVARIATE analysis; PUBLIC relations; REGRESSION analysis; RESEARCH; SEX distribution; SOCIAL participation; COMMUNITY support; DATA analysis; BODY mass index; CONTROL groups; DESCRIPTIVE statistics
- Publication
American Journal of Public Health, 2013, Vol 103, Issue 6, p1110
- ISSN
0090-0036
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2105/AJPH.2012.301009