There is a growing body of evidence which suggests that the environments in which live out our daily lives may be contributing to the obesity epidemic

Research suggests that environmental influences are encouraging sedentary behaviour, while promoting the intake of energy dense foodstuffs [1].

Human environments are, however, extremely complex [2] and further we may interact with numerous different environments in our daily lives, i.e. our homes, where we work or go to school, where we spend time in recreation activities and so on.

Swinburn and Egger have summed this up nicely with their term ‘obesogenic environment’ as ‘the sum of influences, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations [3].

It is also useful to think of environments operating at different scales. One approach is to think of micro-environments, where we may have a degree of control over how we live our lives (e.g. our homes, workplaces, etc) and macro-environments (education and health systems, government policy etc) where we may have little control or influence [4].

At NEOeN we’d also like to emphasise the idea of a mid-range level of influence, the neighbourhood as a focus for research and intervention and to discover the direct and indirect mechanisms which influence our daily lives at this level.

Townshend TG, Lake AA, Ogilvie JA

References

1. Lake, A & Townshend, T. (2006) Obesogenic Environments: Built Environments and Food Environments, Journal of the Royal Society of Health Promotion 126 (6) pp
   262-267.
2. Stokols D, Grzywacz JG, McMahan S, Phillips K. Increasing the health promotive capacity of human environments. American J ournal of Health Promotion 2003;18(1):4-13.
3. Swinburn, B., G. Egger, and F. Raza, (1999). Dissecting Obesogenic Environments: The Development and Application of a Framework for Identifying and Prioritizing Environmental Interventions for Obesity*1. Preventive Medicine, 29(6): p. 563-570.
4. Swinburn B, Egger G, Raza F. Dissecting Obesogenic Environments: The Development and Application of a Framework for Identifying and Prioritizing Environmental Interventions for Obesity*1. Preventive Medicine 1999;29(6):563-570.

Downloadable Resources

Green and public space research mapping exercise full report

Obesogenic environments - Exploring the built and food environments

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