What is it about?
Local employment centers may affect obesity via providing agglomeration benefits such as increased job/transportation opportunities and closer proximity to local facilities/destinations. Using a large serial cross-sectional health survey from Los Angeles, California, this study examined whether the presence of local employment centers modifies the association between land use patterns and individual body mass index.
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Why is it important?
Most findings are consistent with previous studies. However, some of land use factors hypothesized to reduce the risk of obesity could have counterintuitive associations unless local employment centers were controlled. The unexpected results of our land use coefficients indicate that the tenet of New Urbanism may not necessarily promote health benefits. The findings suggest that modifying the built environment may be effective in reducing obesity only in areas with high degree of local employment centers.
Perspectives
Several new findings on the relationship between urban environments and obesity can provide a new discussion on the current literature. Especially, this study contributes to the direction of future studies that would benefit from longitudinal and experimental, rather than cross-sectional, and hence, study designs that rigorously test the potential causal role of New Urbanism on obesity should be addressed.
Jiyoung Park
University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Do local employment centers modify the association between neighborhood urban form and individual obesity?, Environment and Planning A Economy and Space, March 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0308518x18765478.
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