TY - JOUR
T1 - Walkability, overweight, and obesity in adults
T2 - A systematic review of observational studies
AU - Barbosa, João Paulo Dos Anjos Souza
AU - Guerra, Paulo Henrique
AU - Santos, Crislaine de Oliveira
AU - Nunes, Ana Paula de Oliveira Barbosa
AU - Turrell, Gavin
AU - Florindo, Alex Antonio
N1 - Funding Information:
Postdoctoral scholarship from the Postdoctoral National Program (PNPD/CAPES?Brazil).. Acknowledgments: The author JPASB holds a postdoctoral scholarship from the Postdoctoral National Program (PNPD/CAPES?Brazil). AAF receiving a research fellowship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (grant 306635/2016-0).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - We conducted a systematic review to describe and summarize possible associations between the walkability index, overweight, and obesity. Systematic searches using seven electronic databases and reference lists were conducted to identify papers published until December 2017. Observational studies, describing associations using regression-based statistical methods, published in English and Portuguese, reporting markers of overweight and obesity, and involving adults (≥18 years) were included. Of the 2469 references initially retrieved, ten were used for the descriptive synthesis. Seven studies showed significant inverse associations between walkability and overweight and obesity, however, all were cross-sectional studies. High risk of bias scores were observed in “selection bias” and “withdrawals and dropouts”. All studies were published in high-income countries with sample sizes ranging among 75 to 649,513 participants. Weight and height as measures for determining BMI tended to be self-reported. Indicators of walkability, such as land-use mix, street connectivity and residential density were used as components of the indices. Based on this review, more studies should be conducted in low, middle, and middle-high income countries, using longitudinal designs that control neighborhood self-selection; other indicators of the neighborhood environment, such as food access, physical activity facilities, sidewalks, and safety and crime prevention should be considered.
AB - We conducted a systematic review to describe and summarize possible associations between the walkability index, overweight, and obesity. Systematic searches using seven electronic databases and reference lists were conducted to identify papers published until December 2017. Observational studies, describing associations using regression-based statistical methods, published in English and Portuguese, reporting markers of overweight and obesity, and involving adults (≥18 years) were included. Of the 2469 references initially retrieved, ten were used for the descriptive synthesis. Seven studies showed significant inverse associations between walkability and overweight and obesity, however, all were cross-sectional studies. High risk of bias scores were observed in “selection bias” and “withdrawals and dropouts”. All studies were published in high-income countries with sample sizes ranging among 75 to 649,513 participants. Weight and height as measures for determining BMI tended to be self-reported. Indicators of walkability, such as land-use mix, street connectivity and residential density were used as components of the indices. Based on this review, more studies should be conducted in low, middle, and middle-high income countries, using longitudinal designs that control neighborhood self-selection; other indicators of the neighborhood environment, such as food access, physical activity facilities, sidewalks, and safety and crime prevention should be considered.
KW - Environment
KW - Obesity
KW - Overweight
KW - Review
KW - Walkability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071881962&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph16173135
DO - 10.3390/ijerph16173135
M3 - Article
C2 - 31466371
AN - SCOPUS:85071881962
SN - 1660-4601
VL - 16
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 17
M1 - 3135
ER -