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Neighbourhood food environments and body mass index among New York City adults
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Neighbourhood food environments and body mass index among New York City adults

James H Stark, Kathryn Neckerman, Gina S Lovasi, Kevin Konty, James Quinn, Peter Arno, Deborah Viola, Tiffany G Harris, Christopher C Weiss, Michael D M Bader, …
Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979), v 67(9), pp 736-742
Sep 2013
PMID: 23851151
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc5623094View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified) Open

Abstract

Background Studies evaluating the impact of the neighbourhood food environment on obesity have summarised the density or proximity of individual food outlets. Though informative, there is a need to consider the role of the entire food environment; however, few measures of whole system attributes have been developed. New variables measuring the food environment were derived and used to study the association with body mass index (BMI). Methods Individual data on BMI and sociodemographic characteristics were collected from 48 482 respondents of the 2002–2006 community health survey in New York City and linked to residential zip code-level characteristics. The food environment of each zip code was described in terms of the diversity of outlets (number of types of outlets present in a zip code), the density of outlets (outlets/km2) and the proportion of outlets classified as BMI-unhealthy (eg, fast food, bodegas). Results Results of the cross-sectional, multilevel analyses revealed an inverse association between BMI and food outlet density (−0.32 BMI units across the IQR, 95% CI −0.45 to −0.20), a positive association between BMI and the proportion of BMI-unhealthy food outlets (0.26 BMI units per IQR, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.43) and no association with outlet diversity. The association between BMI and the proportion of BMI-unhealthy food outlets was stronger in lower (<median for % poverty) poverty zip codes than in high-poverty zip codes. Conclusions These results support a more nuanced assessment of the impact of the food environment and its association with obesity.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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