ArticleBMC public health2018
Is adolescent body mass index and waist circumference associated with the food environments surrounding schools and homes? A longitudinal analysis.
Article in BMC public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- State-of-the-art of measures of the obesogenic environment for children.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Pooled it
- Fast-food restaurant, unhealthy eating, and childhood obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Pooled it
- The UK Food Environment: A Systematic Review of Domains, Methodologies, and Outcomes.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Review
- Differences across four major US urban areas in metabolic syndrome in the Hispanic Community Children's Health Study/Study of Latino Youth (SOL Youth).Pediatric obesity · 2025Article
- Association between obesogenic environments and childhood overweight/obesity across the United States: Differences by rurality.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Article
- How do urban block built environments affect older adults' walking activities and health effects: a case study in Nanjing, China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Longitudinal association between density of retail food stores and body mass index in Mexican school children and adolescents.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Article
- Associations between the food environment and food and drink purchasing using large-scale commercial purchasing data: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Neighborhood environment and socioeconomic inequalities in cancer admissions: a prospective study using UK Biobank and linked hospital records.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2022Article
- Impact of the external school food environment on the associations of internal school food environment with high schoolers' diet and BMI.Public health nutrition · 2022Article
- Assessing physical access to healthy food across United Kingdom: A systematic review of measures and findings.Obesity science & practice · 2022Review
- Degree of food processing and association with overweight and abdominal obesity in adolescents.Einstein (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2022Article
- The Association between Fast Food Outlets and Overweight in Adolescents Is Confounded by Neighbourhood Deprivation: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Objectively measured waist circumference is most strongly associated in father-boy and mother-girl dyads in a large nationally representative sample of New Zealanders.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2021Article
- The Efficacy of School-Based Interventions in Preventing Adolescent Obesity in Australia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Association between convenience stores near schools and obesity among school-aged children in Beijing, China.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Retail Food Environment around Schools in a Southern European Context.Nutrients · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere has been considerable interest in the role of access to unhealthy food options as a determinant of weight status. There is conflict across the literature as to the existence of such an association, partly due to the dominance of cross-sectional study designs and inconsistent definitions of the food environment. The aim of our study is to use longitudinal data to examine if features of the food environment are associated to measures of adolescent weight status.
methodsData were collected from secondary schools in Leeds (UK) and included measurements at school years 7 (ages 11/12), 9 (13/14), and 11 (15/16). Outcome variables, for weight status, were standardised body mass index and standardised waist circumference. Explanatory variables included the number of fast food outlets, supermarkets and 'other retail outlets' located within a 1 km radius of an individual's home or school, and estimated travel route between these locations (with a 500 m buffer). Multi-level models were fit to analyse the association (adjusted for confounders) between the explanatory and outcome variables. We also examined changes in our outcome variables between each time period.
resultsWe found few associations between the food environment and measures of adolescent weight status. Where significant associations were detected, they mainly demonstrated a positive association between the number of amenities and weight status (although effect sizes were small). Examining changes in weight status between time periods produced mainly non-significant or inconsistent associations.
conclusionsOur study found little consistent evidence of an association between features of the food environment and adolescent weight status. It suggests that policy efforts focusing on the food environment may have a limited effect at tackling the high prevalence of obesity if not supported by additional strategies.
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