Differences in Neighborhood Food Environment May Contribute to Disparities in Obesity

Newswise — The March 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) reports on a study examining the association of neighborhood food environments and walkability with body mass index (BMI) and obesity in New York City. The study shows a higher local density of "BMI-healthy" food outlets -- supermarkets, produce markets and natural food stores where customers can buy fresh fruits and vegetables -- is associated with a lower BMI and lower prevalence of obesity. However, "BMI-unhealthy" food outlets -- fast food restaurants and convenience stores -- although far more abundant than BMI-healthy outlets, were not significantly associated with a higher BMI or the prevalence of obesity.

The study employed a cross-sectional, multilevel analysis of BMI and obesity among 13,102 adult residents of New York City. Subjects' neighborhood was defined as the half-mile buffer around their residential address.

More than 98% of the study subjects lived within a half mile of a food outlet selling BMI-unhealthy foods, with an average density of 31 outlets per square kilometer, whereas 82% lived within a half mile of a BMI-healthy food outlet, with an average density of four outlets per square kilometer. The results indicate that residents of neighborhoods with a higher density of BMI-healthy food outlets had a lower mean BMI and were less likely to be overweight or obese. BMI-unhealthy food stores and restaurants were far more abundant than BMI-healthy ones, but the density of the former was not significantly associated with BMI or with body weight categories. The study indicates that access to stores selling healthier foods is associated with a lower BMI. In addition, two measures of neighborhood "walkability" -- the extent to which a neighborhood allows and invites pedestrian traffic -- were also associated with a lower BMI, even after accounting for the neighborhood food environment.

" Given the recent proliferation of initiatives to promote access to supermarkets, farmers markets, and fruit and vegetable stands and to limit fast food outlets, the study of the causal relationship between the food environment and diet or body size should be a priority for future research," wrote first author Andrew Rundle and colleagues.

"Among studies examining the relationship between food environment and body size, this work is among the first to measure the food environment comprehensively, and to account for the effects of other built in environment factors associated with obesity," said EHP editor-in-chief Hugh A. Tilson, PhD.

Other authors of the paper included Kathryn M. Neckerman, Lance Freeman, Gina S. Lovasi, Marnie Purciel, James Quinn, Catherine Richards, Neelanjan Sircar and Christopher Weiss.

The article is available free of charge at: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11590/11590.html.

EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. EHP is an Open Access journal. More information is available online at http://www.ehponline.org/. Brogan & Partners Convergence Marketing handles marketing and public relations for the publication and is responsible for creation and distribution of this press release.