SynthesisHealth research policy and systems2020
Using natural experiments to improve public health evidence: a review of context and utility for obesity prevention.
Synthesis in Health research policy and systems, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Associations Between the Built Environment and Adult Obesity and the Mediating Role of Physical Activity: A Systematic Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- Educational outcomes of recess in elementary school children: A mixed-methods systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Impact of environmental interventions based on social programs on physical activity levels: A systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- The Impact of Northern Territory Alcohol Policy Changes on Adult Domestic and Family Violence Hospital Admissions.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Long-term impacts of co-designed sustainable park improvements on physical activity and other wellbeing behaviours: a 7-year natural experimental study in a deprived urban area.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- Natural experiments in the built environment: evaluating impacts on health.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2026Article
- Precision public health: A natural experiment on chronic high-contrast PM2.5 exposure and pulmonary function among older adults.PloS one · 2026Article
- Financial interventions for family caregivers: a scoping review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2025Article
- Article
- How Is Scale Incorporated Into the Economic Evaluation of Interventions to Prevent Obesity or to Improve Obesity-Related Risk Factors: A Systematic Scoping Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Article
- Evaluating the contribution of a scaled up community-based overweight prevention programme in the Netherlands to children's health behaviours and BMIz.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Observational
- A good move for health?: Analyzing urban exposure trajectories of residential relocation and mental health in populations in Bradford.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Physical activity-the past, present and potential future: a state-of-the-art review.Health promotion international · 2025Review
- Article
- Opportunities for physical activity research in Puerto Rico: a review of the literature.Discover public health · 2025Review
- Evaluating actual use of outdoor exercise equipment in a community park in Southern California through video-captured behavioral assessment.Discover public health · 2025Article
- Associations between Changes in Exposure to Air Pollutants due to Relocation and the Incidence of 14 Major Disease Categories and All-Cause Mortality: A Natural Experiment Study.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- Association of Park Renovation With Park Use in New York City.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Article
- Generating Contextual Variables From Web-Based Data for Health Research: Tutorial on Web Scraping, Text Mining, and Spatial Overlay Analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNatural experiments are increasingly valued as a way to assess the health impact of health and non-health interventions when planned controlled experimental research designs may be infeasible or inappropriate to implement. This study sought to investigate the value of natural experiments by exploring how they have been used in practice. The study focused on obesity prevention research as one complex programme area for applying natural experiment studies.
methodsA literature search sought obesity prevention research from January 1997 to December 2017 and identified 46 population health studies that self-described as a natural experiment.
resultsThe majority of studies identified were published in the last 5 years, illustrating a more recent adoption of such opportunities. The majority of studies were evaluations of the impact of policies (n = 19), such as assessing changes to food labelling, food advertising or taxation on diet and obesity outcomes, or were built environment interventions (n = 17), such as the impact of built infrastructure on physical activity or access to healthy food. Research designs included quasi-experimental, pre-experimental and non-experimental methods. Few studies applied rigorous research designs to establish stronger causal inference, such as multiple pre/post measures, time series designs or comparison of change against an unexposed group. In general, researchers employed techniques to enhance the study utility but often were limited in the use of more rigorous study designs by ethical considerations and/or the particular context of the intervention.
conclusionGreater recognition of the utility and versatility of natural experiments in generating evidence for complex health issues like obesity prevention is needed. This review suggests that natural experiments may be underutilised as an approach for providing evidence of the effects of interventions, particularly for evaluating health outcomes of interventions when unexpected opportunities to gather evidence arise.
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Registered trials
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.