Background Despite increasing interest in the extent to which features of residential environments contribute to incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus, no multisite prospective studies have investigated this question. We hypothesized that neighborhood resources supporting physical activity and healthy diets are associated with a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes. Methods Person-level data came from 3 sites of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a population-based, prospective study of adults aged 45 to 84 years at baseline. Neighborhood data were derived from a population-based residential survey. Type 2 diabetes was defined as a fasting glucose level of 126 mg/dL or higher (≥7 mmol/L) or taking insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents. We estimated the hazard ratio of type 2 diabetes incidence associated with neighborhood (US Census tract) resources. Results Among 2285 participants, 233 new type 2 diabetes cases occurred during a median of 5 follow-up years. Better neighborhood resources, determined by a combined score for physical activity and healthy foods, were associated with a 38% lower incidence of type 2 diabetes (hazard ratio corresponding to a difference between the 90th and 10th percentiles for resource distribution, 0.62; 95% confidence interval, 0.43–0.88 adjusted for age, sex, family history of diabetes, race/ethnicity, income, assets, educational level, alcohol use, and smoking status). The association remained statistically significant after further adjustment for individual dietary factors, physical activity level, and body mass index. Conclusion Better neighborhood resources were associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes, which suggests that improving environmental features may be a viable population-level strategy for addressing this disease.

This study investigated associations between neighborhood physical and social environments and body mass index in 2,865 participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) aged 45-84 years and residing in Maryland, New York, and North Carolina. Neighborhood (census tract) environments were measured in non-MESA participants residing in MESA neighborhoods (2000-2002). The neighborhood physical environment score combined measures of a better walking environment and greater availability of healthy foods. The neighborhood social environment score combined measures of greater aesthetic quality, safety, and social cohesion and less violent crime. Marginal maximum likelihood was used to estimate associations between neighborhood environments and body mass index (kg/m(2)) before and after adjustment for individual-level covariates. MESA residents of neighborhoods with better physical environments had lower body mass index (mean difference per standard deviation higher neighborhood measure = -2.38 (95% confidence interval (CI): -3.38, -1.38) kg/m(2) for women and -1.20 (95% CI: -1.84, -0.57) kg/m(2) for men), independent of age, race/ethnicity, education, and income. Attenuation of these associations after adjustment for diet and physical activity suggests a mediating role of these behaviors. In men, the mean body mass index was higher in areas with better social environments (mean difference = 0.52 (95% CI: 0.07, 0.97) kg/m(2)). Improvement in the neighborhood physical environment should be considered for its contribution to reducing obesity.

Purpose This study examined associations of neighborhood social cohesion, violence and aesthetic quality with depressive symptoms amongst 2619 healthy adults aged 45-84 years enrolled in the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Methods Neighborhood characteristics were estimated by surveying a separate sample of area residents. Measures of aesthetic environment, social cohesion, and violence were combined into a summary score with increasing scores indicating more favorable environments. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. Marginal maximum likelihood estimation was used to assess associations of neighborhood characteristics with CES-D score at baseline and with the odds of developing incident depression (CES-D score ≥16 or use of antidepressants) over a 4-5 year follow-up among persons with CESD<16 at baseline. Models were adjusted for age, income, education, and race/ethnicity. Results Lower levels of social cohesion and aesthetic quality and higher levels of violence were associated with higher mean CES-D scores in men and women (p-value for trend <0.01, adjusted mean difference in CES-D per 1 SD increase in summary score -1.01 (95% CI: -1.85, -0.17) and -1.08 (-1.88, -0.28) in men and women respectively). Associations of neighborhood characteristics with incident depression were in the expected direction for women but confidence intervals were wide (OR of incident depression 0.89 (0.63, 1.26)). No association was seen for men (OR=0.96 (0.74, 1.25)). Conclusions: Neighborhood social cohesion, aesthetic quality and violence are associated with the presence of depressive symptoms in residents.

This paper describes the use of arrays of horizontally-oriented reservoirs to deliver liquids through microchannels at a constant flow rate over extended periods of time (hours to days). The horizontal orientation maintains a constant hydraulic pressure drop across microfluidic channels even as the volumes of liquids within the reservoirs change over time. For a given channel-reservoir system, the magnitude of the flow velocity depends linearly on the height difference between reservoirs. The simple structure and operation mechanism make this pumping system versatile. A one-inlet-one-outlet system was used to continuously deliver media for perfusion cell culture, and an array of inlet reservoirs coupled to an outlet reservoir via microchannels was used to drive flows of multiple laminar streams. The parallel pumping scheme conveniently generated various smooth and step concentration gradients, and allowed evaluation of the effect of colchicine on myoblasts. Since the reservoir arrays are configured to be compatible with commercialized multichannel pipettors designed for 96 well plate handling, this simple pumping scheme is envisioned to be broadly useful for medium to high throughput microfluidic perfusion cell culture assays, cell migration assays, multiple laminar flow drug tests, and any other applications needing multiple microfluidic streams.

While behavioral change is necessary to reverse the obesity epidemic, it can be difficult to achieve and sustain in unsupportive residential environments. This study hypothesized that environmental resources supporting walking and a healthy diet are associated with reduced obesity incidence. Data came from 4008 adults aged 45-84 at baseline who participated in a neighborhood ancillary study of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Participants were enrolled at 6 study sites at baseline (2000)(2001)(2002) and neighborhood scales were derived from a supplementary survey that asked community residents to rate availability of healthy foods and walking environments for a one-mile buffer area. Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) >=30 kg/m 2 . Associations between incident obesity and neighborhood exposure were examined using proportional hazards and generalized linear regression. Among 4008 non-obese participants, 406 new obesity cases occurred during 5 years of follow-up. Neighborhood healthy food environment was associated Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms Correspondence to: Amy H. Auchincloss, aha27@drexel.edu. DISCLOSURE STATEMENTThe authors have no conflict of interest to disclose. HHS Public Access