SynthesisSocial science & medicine (1982)2022
The impact of the consumer and neighbourhood food environment on dietary intake and obesity-related outcomes: A systematic review of causal impact studies.
Synthesis in Social science & medicine (1982), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 2 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
66 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social determinants of health influencing diabetes self-care behaviors among immigrants: a scoping review.Frontiers in clinical diabetes and healthcare · 2026Pooled it
- Area-Level Factors of Dental Caries in Children and Adolescents in European Neighborhoods - a Systematic Review.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Associations Between Diet Quality and Psychosocial and Environmental Factors in Rural Adults.Journal of nutrition education and behavior · 2026Trial
- Barriers and facilitators to dietary change while aiming to reduce free sugar intakes: framework analysis based on intervention, time for change, and success at 12 weeks.Journal of nutritional science · 2026Trial
- Are Dutch adults equally susceptible to nudging and pricing strategies? Secondary analyses of the Supreme Nudge parallel cluster-randomised controlled supermarket trial.BMC medicine · 2024Trial
- "You Gotta Eat It to Survive": A Mixed-Methods Study of the Perceived Food Environment and Food Choice Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Associations of Neighborhood Food Access with Child Body Mass Index and Obesity.Childhood obesity (Print) · 2026Article
- Alignment of Food Policies and Cardiovascular Disease Burden: Insights from the Literature.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2026Review
- Digital chameleons of the food environment: an exploratory analysis of the shapeshifting nature of dark kitchens in Australia and their regulatory challenges.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Islands in an Obesogenic Ocean: A Multiscale Spatial Analysis of School Neighborhood Food Environments in Michigan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Using participatory methods to develop context-specific local government actions to create healthy food and physical activity environments for school-aged children: a case study in Flanders.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- A nutrition environment measures survey for dollar stores (nems-ds) in rural south carolina: assessing nutrition equity and WIC readiness.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Urban Foodscape in Transition: Spatiotemporal Characteristics in Healthy and Unhealthy Food Outlets and Socioeconomic Disparities in Wuhan During 2012-2022.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- Associations of eating context with dietary quality, satiety, and postprandial blood glucose in free-living Singaporean adults during 9 days of intensive digital phenotyping.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- Environmental Determinants of Pediatric Obesity: An Epidemiological Review.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Environmental Influences on Food Addiction and Cardiometabolic Profiles in Law Enforcement Officers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic and Structural Barriers to Addressing Obesity in Communities: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Circulation · 2026Review
- Association between healthiness of community food environments and diet-related health outcomes in regional Australia: an ecological study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Neighborhood built environment and leukocyte telomere length among African American adults in the Jackson Heart Study.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2026Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe food environment has been found to impact population dietary behaviour. Our study aimed to systematically review the impact of different elements of the food environment on dietary intake and obesity.
methodsWe searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsychInfo, EconLit databases to identify literature that assessed the relationship between the built food environments (intervention) and dietary intake and obesity (outcomes), published between database inception to March 26, 2020. All human studies were eligible except for those on clinical sub-groups. Only studies with causal inference methods were assessed. Studies focusing on the food environment inside homes, workplaces and schools were excluded. A risk of bias assessment was conducted using the CASP appraisal checklist. Findings were summarized using a narrative synthesis approach.
findings58 papers were included, 55 of which were conducted in high-income countries. 70% of papers focused on the consumer food environments and found that in-kind/financial incentives, healthy food saliency, and health primes, but not calorie menu labelling significantly improved dietary quality of children and adults, while BMI results were null. 30% of the papers focused on the neighbourhood food environments and found that the number of and distance to unhealthy food outlets increased the likelihood of fast-food consumption and higher BMI for children of any SES; among adults only selected groups were impacted - females, black, and Hispanics living in low and medium density areas. The availability and distance to healthy food outlets significantly improved children's dietary intake and BMI but null results were found for adults.
interpretationEvidence suggests certain elements of the consumer and neighbourhood food environments could improve populations dietary intake, while effect on BMI was observed among children and selected adult populations. Underprivileged groups are most likely to experience and impact on BMI. Future research should investigate whether findings translate in other countries.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.