Wednesday, July 1, 2015

“From soda bans to bike lanes: Which 'natural experiments' really reduce obesity?”

Diet & Food Policy Changes
Changes with strong impacts were ones that improved the nutritional quality of foods:
  • Trans-fat bans
  • Sugary food and beverage availability limits
  • Higher-fat food availability limits
Changes that had smaller or no impacts in the research to date included:
  • Nutritional information requirements
  • Supermarkets built in underserved areas
Physical Activity Focused Changes
Changes with stronger impacts included:
  • Active transportation infrastructure improvements
  • Changes studied after longer-term follow-up periods
More research is needed to look at physical activity effects (not just use of amenities) for built environment changes including:
  • Park improvements
  • Trails
  • Active transportation infrastructure
The researchers noted that a common shortcoming in many studies is that they only measured process outcomes such as food purchases or use of bike/transit infrastructure, rather than measuring the desired health outcomes, such as weight loss.”

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