Associations between the built environment and dietary intake, physical activity, and obesity: A scoping review of reviews

Abstract

Summary There exists a large body of literature examining the association between built environment factors and dietary intake, physical activity, and weight status; however, synthesis of this literature has been limited. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review of reviews and identified 74 reviews and meta‐analyses that investigated the association between built environment factors and dietary intake, physical activity, and/or weight status. Results across reviews were mixed, with heterogeneous effects demonstrated in terms of strength and statistical significance; however, preliminary support was identified for several built environment factors. For example, quality of dietary intake appeared to be associated with the availability of grocery stores, higher levels of physical activity appeared to be most consistently associated with greater walkability, and lower weight status was associated with greater diversity in land‐use mix. Overall, reviews reported substantial concern regarding methodological limitations and poor quality of existing studies. Future research should focus on improving study quality (e.g., using longitudinal methods, including natural experiments, and newer mobile sensing technologies) and consensus should be drawn regarding how to define and measure both built environment factors and weight‐related outcomes.

Protocol for an evaluation of the Designing Communities to Support Healthy Living in Aging Residents Study

“…To gather greater evidence on the causal impacts of the BE on healthy living, it is now recommended that researchers in this area focus on research designs that support causal inferences, such as quasi-experimental studies [24]. Therefore, the quasi-experimental pre-post design is a key strength.…”

“…An urban greenspace intervention however did not impact well-being behaviours and use of the spaces by older adults [23]. Given that the environment includes many features, multiple co-occurring interventions may be necessary to produce meaningful impacts on behaviour [24]. Interventions may also be more effective if they are designed based on consistent correlates identified in the literature [24].…”

Association of Neighborhood Food Environment and Physical Activity Environment With Obesity: A Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Study of Fifth- to Ninth-Grade Children in Japan

“…Systematic reviews of the relationship between these individual items and childhood obesity have been published. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Dixon et al 19 conducted a scoping review, which summarized the systematic reviews and metaanalyses of the association between the built environment and physical activity, dietary intake, and obesity, where these items were listed as variables that had been included in previous reviews. Therefore, these eight variables were investigated in this study.…”

A comprehensive evaluation of physical activity on sidewalks and streets in three U.S. Cities

“…Although a considerable amount of PA has been reported to occur on sidewalks/streets, few studies have actually observed PA occurring on sidewalks/streets, and those that have limited data collection to small, homogeneous geographical areas potentially restricting ranges of social and physical environmental factors ( Suminski et al, 2015 , Kelly et al, 2014 , Dixon et al, 2021 , Suminski et al, 2008 , Suminski et al, 2008 , Suminski et al, 2006 ). Information of this caliper would be useful for informing behavioral theories and future evaluations in this area.…”