Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25753170›Full record

SynthesisObesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity2015

Impact of policy and built environment changes on obesity-related outcomes: a systematic review of naturally occurring experiments.

S L Mayne, A H Auchincloss, Y L Michael

Abstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 138 papers, 20 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
138citing papers in PubMed, 20 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

138 citing papers in PubMed, 20 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Impacts of built environment changes on physical activity in Canada: a systematic review of natural experiments.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Policy, system, and environmental interventions addressing obesity and diet-related outcomes in early childhood education settings: A systematic review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2023
    Pooled it
  5. Impacts of new cycle infrastructure on cycling levels in two French cities: an interrupted time series analysis.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2022
    Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Pooled it
  10. Pooled it
  11. Pooled it
  12. Pooled it
  13. Built Environment and Health Behaviors: Deconstructing the Black Box of Interactions-A Review of Reviews.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019
    Pooled it
  14. Pooled it
  15. Pooled it
  16. Pooled it
  17. Physical activity and the environment: conceptual review and framework for intervention research.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2017
    Pooled it
  18. Pooled it
  19. Guideline
  20. Pooled it

78 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

S L MayneDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
A H Auchincloss
Y L Michael

Funding

Neighborhoods and CVD Risk in a Multiethnic Cohort (RMI)R01HL071759 · NHLBI · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI DIEZ ROUX, ANA VICTORIA · 2003 to 2013
$4.8M
NHLBI NIH HHS 2R01 HL071759NHLBI NIH HHS R01 HL071759
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Policies and changes to the built environment are promising targets for obesity prevention efforts and can be evaluated as 'natural'- or 'quasi'-experiments. This systematic review examined the use of natural- or quasi-experiments to evaluate the efficacy of policy and built environment changes on obesity-related outcomes (body mass index, diet or physical activity). PubMed (Medline) was searched for studies published 2005-2013; 1,175 abstracts and 115 papers were reviewed. Of the 37 studies included, 18 studies evaluated impacts on nutrition/diet, 17 on physical activity and 3 on body mass index. Nutrition-related studies found greater effects because of bans/restrictions on unhealthy foods, mandates offering healthier foods, and altering purchase/payment rules on foods purchased using low-income food vouchers compared with other interventions (menu labelling, new supermarkets). Physical activity-related studies generally found stronger impacts when the intervention involved improvements to active transportation infrastructure, longer follow-up time or measured process outcomes (e.g., cycling rather than total physical activity), compared with other studies. Only three studies directly assessed body mass index or weight, and only one (installing light-rail system) observed a significant effect. Studies varied widely in the strength of their design and studies with weaker designs were more likely to report associations in the positive direction.

Indexed as

DietEnvironment DesignExercisePublic PolicyBody Mass IndexCardiovascular DiseasesFoodHealth PromotionHumansNutritional Physiological PhenomenaObesityPolicy MakingDietnatural experimentsobesityphysical activity

Identifiers

PMID25753170
PMCPMC4789114

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.