Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Objectives The residential neighbourhood fast-food environment has the potential to lead to increased levels of obesity by providing opportunities for residents to consume energy-dense products. This longitudinal study aimed to examine whether change in body mass index (BMI) differed dependent on major chain fast-food outlet availability among women residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Setting Eighty disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Victoria, Australia. Participants Sample of 882 women aged 18–46 years at baseline (wave I: 2007/2008) who remained at the same residential location at all three waves (wave II: 2010/2011; wave III: 2012/2013) of the Resilience for Eating and Activity Despite Inequality study. Primary outcome BMI based on self-reported height and weight at each wave. Results There was no evidence of an interaction between time and the number of major chain fast-food outlets within 2 (p=0.88), 3 (p=0.66) or 5 km (p=0.24) in the multilevel models of BMI. Furthermore, there was no evidence of an interaction between time and change in availability at any distance and BMI. Conclusions Change in BMI was not found to differ by residential major chain fast-food outlet availability among Victorian women residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. It may be that exposure to fast-food outlets around other locations regularly visited influence change in BMI. Future research needs to consider what environments are the key sources for accessing and consuming fast food and how these relate to BMI and obesity risk.

School/Institute

Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research

Document Type

Open Access Journal Article

Access Rights

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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