Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Neighborhood food environments may be related to obesity among adolescents and be potentially related to other health disparities. Greater access to fast food outlets has been associated with less favorable diet quality and an increase prevalence of obesity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial relationship between food environment features around schools with weight status and fast food consumption among adolescents. METHODS: This is a cross sectional study with 995 adolescents who were recruited and completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic information, fast food intakes besides height and weight measurements. Geographic Information System was used to geocode for spatial cluster analysis with a 400 and 800-m-radius buffer around each school. We examined the relationship between the presence of fast food outlets with fast food consumption and BMI using multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Fast food outlets density was not associated with BMI. BMI z-scores were positively associated with the presence of fast food outlets within a 1.6km buffer. Spatial analysis showed no significant difference in food environment features and weight status among adolescents. The results showed the median distance from any school in urban areas to the nearest fast food outlets was 0.52km and about a third of schools were surrounded by at least one fast food outlets within 800m. CONCLUSION: Although a negative association between density of fast food outlets with weight status among adolescents was observed, policies and interventions that encourage adolescents and parents to eat at home could serve as effective prevention against a poor diet.
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@proceedings{APCPH-2019-154,
title = {Do Features of the Food Environment have an Influence on Body Weight and Fast Food Consumption Among Adolescents in Malaysia?},
author = {SUHAILA ABDUL GHAFFAR},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-22},
urldate = {2019-07-22},
journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
issue = {6},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Neighborhood food environments may be related to obesity among adolescents and be potentially related to other health disparities. Greater access to fast food outlets has been associated with less favorable diet quality and an increase prevalence of obesity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial relationship between food environment features around schools with weight status and fast food consumption among adolescents. METHODS: This is a cross sectional study with 995 adolescents who were recruited and completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic information, fast food intakes besides height and weight measurements. Geographic Information System was used to geocode for spatial cluster analysis with a 400 and 800-m-radius buffer around each school. We examined the relationship between the presence of fast food outlets with fast food consumption and BMI using multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Fast food outlets density was not associated with BMI. BMI z-scores were positively associated with the presence of fast food outlets within a 1.6km buffer. Spatial analysis showed no significant difference in food environment features and weight status among adolescents. The results showed the median distance from any school in urban areas to the nearest fast food outlets was 0.52km and about a third of schools were surrounded by at least one fast food outlets within 800m. CONCLUSION: Although a negative association between density of fast food outlets with weight status among adolescents was observed, policies and interventions that encourage adolescents and parents to eat at home could serve as effective prevention against a poor diet.},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Institute for Public Health},
keywords = {Adolescents, fast food, Food environment, Geographic Information System (GIS), obesity},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}