Journal
OBESITY REVIEWS
Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages 217-230Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2010.00726.x
Keywords
Environment; metabolic diseases; obesity; residence characteristics
Categories
Funding
- National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) [00153 05]
- Institute for Public Health Research (Institut de Recherche en Sante Publique
- National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (Institut National de Prevention et d'Education pour la Sante) [2007 074/07-DAS]
- National Institute of Public Health Surveillance (Institut de Veille Sanitaire)
- French Ministries of Research and Health
- National Health Insurance Office for Salaried Workers (Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie des Travailleurs Salaries)
- Ile-de-France Health and Social Affairs Regional Direction (Direction Regionale des Affaires Sanitaires et Sociales d'Ile-de-France)
- Ile-de-France Public Health Regional Group (Groupement Regional de Sante Publique)
- Ile-de-France Youth and Sports Regional Direction (Direction Regionale de la Jeunesse et des Sports)
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P>Recent environmental changes play a role in the dramatic increase in the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) such as obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemias and the metabolic syndrome in industrialized countries. Therefore, identifying environmental characteristics that are associated with risk factors is critical to develop more effective public health interventions. We conducted a systematic review of the literature investigating relationships between characteristics of geographic life environments and CMRFs (131 articles). Most studies were published after 2006, relied on cross-sectional designs, and examined whether sociodemographic and physical environmental characteristics, and more recently service environment characteristics, were associated with obesity or, to a lesser extent, hypertension. Only 14 longitudinal studies were retrieved; diabetes, dyslipidemias and the metabolic syndrome were rarely analysed; and aspects of social interactions in the neighbourhood were critically underinvestigated. Environmental characteristics that were consistently associated with either obesity or hypertension include low area socioeconomic position; low urbanization degree; low street intersection, service availability and residential density; high noise pollution; low accessibility to supermarkets and high density of convenience stores; and low social cohesion. Intermediate mechanisms between environmental characteristics and CMRFs have received little attention. We propose a research agenda based on the assessment of underinvestigated areas of research and methodological limitations of current literature.
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