Wilkins, E, Morris, M orcid.org/0000-0002-9325-619X, Radley, D et al. (1 more author) (2019) Methods of measuring associations between the Retail Food Environment and weight status: importance of classifications and metrics. SSM - Population Health, 8. 100404. ISSN 2352-8273
Abstract
Despite considerable research, evidence supporting associations between the ‘Retail Food Environment’ (RFE) and obesity remains mixed. Differences in the methods used to measure the RFE may explain this heterogeneity. Using data on a large (n = 10,111) sample of adults from the Yorkshire Health Study (UK), we modelled cross-sectional associations between the RFE and weight status using (i) multiple definitions of ‘Fast Food’, ‘Convenience’ and ‘Supermarkets’ and (ii) multiple RFE metrics, identified in a prior systematic review to be common in the literature. Both the choice of outlet definition and the choice of RFE metric substantively impacted observed associations with weight status. Findings differed in relation to statistical significance, effect sizes, and directions of association. This study provides novel evidence that the diversity of RFE measurement methods is contributing to heterogeneous study findings and conflicting policy messages. Greater attention is needed when selecting and communicating RFE measures in research.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Community nutrition environment; Foodscape; GIS; Food access; Obesogenic environment; Methodology; United Kingdom |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM) (Leeds) > Section of Translational Medicine (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ESRC ES/S007164/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 Apr 2019 14:52 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:48 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100404 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:145391 |