Previously, the Seattle Obesity Study generated objective measures of the built environment, diet quality, and health outcomes by tracking 500 King County, Washington, participants asked to carry global positioning system devices for a week. The projects’ findings covered the cost of food and people’s choice of supermarket, the absence of food deserts in King County, the clustering of people by weight status and socioeconomic status, and a comparison of food shopping behaviors in Seattle and Paris, France. This new phase of the project is seeking to explain why obesity rates are closely linked to both individual and area socioeconomic status, whereas weight change measured over 12 months is not. By looking at the built environment and its relationships to food shopping, diet quality, obesity, and related physical activity for residents, the project should help public decision-makers in creating healthier environments.
Principal Investigators:
Anne Vernez Moudon, Urban Design and Planning, UW
Adam Drewnowski, Epidemiology, UW
Sponsors:
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Scheduled completion: July 2020