Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2012
Poster Presentation
Relationship between Obesity and Environment Among Ten Year Olds
Kayla T. Anderson
Faculty Mentor: Debra Allwardt
Social Work
Several studies have proven that in the United States obesity is a growing issue among
adults and children. Research by Saxe (2011) demonstrates that children as young as
age 2 are overweight or obese. Benjamin et al. (2008) stated that obesity has increased
because of factors such as genetics, dietary intake, watching television, and lack of
physical activity. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand how obesity is related
to several issues of the child’s environment, such as access to safe play areas and time
spent engaging in various activities. I received my survey question and data from the
National Survey of Children’s Health which is a national data file. The National Survey
of Children conducted a survey of a total of 91,642 parents which was completed
nationally about children between the ages of 0-17 years. The surveys were conducted
by using the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey, which provided a quick
and consistent way to collect information at the state and local levels. When examining
this research, many states and ages of children were used, however, I will only focus on
10 year old children who reside in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Even though I am
currently in the process of analyzing data for my study, I hypothesize that children who
have more access to play opportunities are less likely to experience obesity.