Environment

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, 2]

Human environments are, however, extremely complex as clearly illustrated by the Foresight obesity system map [3]. Further in our daily lives we may interact with numerous different physical environments i.e. our homes, where we work or go to school, where we spend time in recreation activities and so on which in turn expose to a multiplicity of different influences and drivers of behaviour.

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 [4].

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.

At NEOeN we’d also like to emphasise the idea of a mid-range (or meso-environment) 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.

References

  1. Lake, A. and T. Townshend, Obesogenic environments: exploring the built and food environments. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 2006. 126(6): p. 262-267.
  2. Townshend, T.G. and A.A. Lake, Exploring obesogenic urban form, Theory, policy and practice Health and Place. Health and Place, 2009 15(4): p. 909-916.
  3. Foresight, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices – Project report. 2007, Government Office for Science: London.
  4. Swinburn, B., G. Egger, and F. Raza, Dissecting Obesogenic Environments: The Development and Application of a Framework for Identifying and Prioritizing Environmental Interventions for Obesity*1. Preventive Medicine, 1999. 29(6): p. 563-570.