Research
Adherence
Increased availability of fast-food restaurants in a residential neighborhood is associated with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and higher obesity rates in postmenopausal women.
Living in an area with many fast-food restaurants is linked to higher BMI and obesity rates. This suggests that the ease of accessing unhealthy, energy-dense food contributes to weight gain, even if individual choices are not the sole factor.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Conversely, as fast-food outlet availability increased from the 10th to the 90th percentile, BMI was higher by 0.28 kg/m2... the obesity prevalence rose from 37% to 39% as the availability of fast-food restaurants increased from the 10th to the 90th percentile.
Why this rating
Large sample size and robust statistical modeling, but cross-sectional nature prevents establishing causality.
Source
The Women's Health Initiative: The Food Environment, Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, BMI, and Blood Pressure
Tamara Dubowitz et al. · Obesity · 2011
DOI 10.1038/oby.2011.141
cross_sectional · n=60775Cited 176×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Increased availability of grocery stores and supermarkets in a residential neighborhood is associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and lower Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) in postmenopausal women.Good
- Higher Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status (NSES) is associated with lower BMI, lower obesity rates, and lower Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in postmenopausal women.Good
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