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. 2015 Jul:34:19-29.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.03.010. Epub 2015 Apr 10.

Built environment and obesity by urbanicity in the U.S

Yanqing Xu  1 , Fahui Wang  2
Affiliations

Built environment and obesity by urbanicity in the U.S

Yanqing Xu et al. Health Place. 2015 Jul.

Abstract

Based on the data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2012, this study examines the association of neighborhood built environments with individual physical inactivity and obesity in the U.S. Multilevel modeling is used to control for the effects of individual socio-demographic characteristics. Neighborhood variables include built environment, poverty level and urbanicity at the county level. Among the built environment variables, a poorer street connectivity and a more prominent presence of fast-food restaurants are associated with a higher obesity risk (especially for areas of certain urbanicity levels). Analysis of data subsets divided by areas of different urbanicity levels and by gender reveals the variability of effects of independent variables, more so for the neighborhood variables than individual variables. This implies that some obesity risk factors are geographically specific and vary between men and women. The results lend support to the role of built environment in influencing people's health behavior and outcome, and promote public policies that need to be geographically adaptable and sensitive to the diversity of demographic groups.

Keywords: Built Environment; Food environment; Obesity; Urbanicity; Walk score.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
County-level variables: (a) racial-ethnic heterogeneity; (b) poverty rate; (c) street connectivity; (d) walk score; (e) food environment; (f) urbanicity
Figure 2
Figure 2
Averages of county-level variables by urbanicity: (a) physical inactivity rate and obesity rate, b) racial-ethnic heterogeneity, (c) poverty rate, (d) street connectivity, (e) walk score; (f) food environment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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