The way ahead: where next for research into obesogenic environments?

Abstract

The SPOTLIGHT project was a collaboration across thirteen partners from eight countries over four years funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (CORDIS FP7) of the European Commission. The overall aim of the project was to investigate individual and contextual determinants of obesity and identify effective approaches to obesity prevention that target these determinants at multiple levels (1). The project included five research-based work packages, one of which, the focus of this supplement, investigated relations between social and physical environmental factors associated with obesity-related behaviours and weight status.The project generated significant learning on interpreting associations between environment and behaviour, and for understanding the complexity of studying determinants of adult obesity. Moreover, the European context provided a valuable added dimension as a result of both the differences between the countries in which the research took place and their similarities. The systematic reviews on the built (2) and social environment (3) demonstrated the heterogeneity within the existing literature. A systematic review of virtual audit tools demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of using this novel approach for assessing the built environment (4). Building on the learning from the systematic reviews, we developed and validated a protocol for assessing obesity-related characteristics of the built environment using Google Street View (5). Combined with a neighbourhood survey across 60 urban areas in five European study countries, we gathered a wealth of data on neighbourhood environments, neighbourhood perceptions, obesityrelated behaviours and health outcomes. The SPOTLIGHT study has thus provided a range of insights, from the different ways in which people perceive the boundaries of their residential neighbourhoods, to improved understanding of the relations between social capital, diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and perceptions of the environment. The project also allowed for methodological developments such as the use of multiple factor and hierarchical clustering obesity reviews

Cross-sectional interactions between quality of the physical and social environment and self-reported physical activity in adults living in income-deprived communities

“…For example, inconsistent effects of crime and aesthetics on physical activity could arise from interactive effects of other aspects of the social and physical environment suppressing or heightening measured effects within certain environmental conditions [ 19 – 24 ]. Secondly, understanding pathways of influence between environmental variables and physical activity could inform development of interventions to create activity-supportive environments in specific contexts, embracing the complexity of environmental influences and ensuring that unmeasured features of the environment do not suppress effects [ 25 ]. Examining interactive effects is required to address these points and to test a central tenant of socioecological models of physical activity.…”

Validity and Reliability of the Facility List Coder, a New Tool to Evaluate Community Food Environments

“…The FLC is not the only tool that can be used to assess food environments using common online search-engines like Google Maps. The SPOTLIGHT-Virtual Audit Tool (S-VAT) uses the street views provided by Google Earth to develop a desk-based assessment of community food environments [21,24]. This tool was derived from a large European Union-funded project and was developed to identify and compare environmental characteristics in European neighborhoods.…”

The Upstream Determinants of Adult Obesity

“…Obesity is a caused by a complex system of both downstream and upstream factors that interact with one another [37]. As such, there is growing recognition of the need to consider the multifaceted and complex nature of upstream influences on obesogenic behaviours [38]. A greater appreciation of systems theory and the use of system models may be helpful, but considerable challenges remain.…”