The rates of obesity are increasing among all the individuals, however disparity in its rate is related to the ethnic and the socio economic background; it is linked not only to the nutrition and the physical activities, but also to the environmental situation in which people live.

A new study appearing in the journal “Nutrition Reviews” says that the neighborhood and its socio-economic level, environmental factors like access to healthy foods and activities have played an important role in bringing the obesity problem to the alarming stage today.

The research was conducted by Jennifer L. Black of ‘New York University’s ‘Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health’ with her team who critically reviewed the studies done between 1997 a 2007 on neighborhood determinants of obesity.

They found that the disparity in the socio economic status also depicts its role in the obesity. Obesity was surprisingly found more prevalent among the people who had poor neighborhood and surroundings. The residents enjoy less space for the physical activity. Thus they have limited opportunities to engage in activities like cycling and daily walking.

This leads to a sedentary life style encouraging the rate of obesity. It suggests that several features of the neighborhood such as densities, poor street connectivity and the lack of sidewalks are associated with decreased physical activity and an increased risk of being overweight.

In addition, the access to the healthy and affordable foods is also limited as generally there is a lack of good departmental stores and supermarkets in such areas, so this works as another obstacle in building up a healthy life style. Small stores sell low quality, non-fresh food on higher prices, a situation that leads to poorer nutrition and lower health status.

During the study, a framework was decided to determine the different pathways through which neighborhoods and surroundings influence the body weight. The framework was designed to organize the different ways through which neighborhood determinants of obesity could be accessed.

It included the three important factors, like influence of social factors, provision of infrastructure promoting physical activity and healthy food to the residents and the individual life style influenced out of personal choices and preferences.

These three layers of study were also inter related so all the aspects had certain direct and indirect impacts on each other and ultimately impact weight.

They concluded that income, cultural preferences and hereditary tendencies contribute more to the geographic disparities. Change in the land use and better infrastructure change which promotes physical activity and access to better healthy food choices are emerging as important factors. This study attempts to provide a new area of public health intervention.

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