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A Comparative Analysis Of The Restaurant Consumer Food Environment In Rochester (Ny, Usa) And London (On, Canada): Assessing Children’S Menus By Neighbourhood Socio-Economic Characteristics, Catherine Dubreck, Richard C. Sadler, Godwin Arku, Jamie A. Seabrook, Jason A. Gilliland

Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL)

Objective:To assess restaurant children’s menus for content and nutritional quality; and to investigate the relationship between the restaurant consumer food environment for children and neighbourhood-level socio-economic characteristics within and between one Canadian city and one US city. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Setting: London, ON, Canada and Rochester, NY, USA. Participants: Restaurant children’s menus were assessed, scored and compared using the Children’s Menu Assessment tool. We quantified neighbourhood accessibility to restaurants by calculating 800 m road-network buffers around the centroid of each city census block and created a new Neighbourhood Restaurant Quality Index for Children (NRQI-C) comprising the sum of …

Association Between Neighbourhood Fast-Food And Full-Service Restaurant Density And Bmi: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Canadian Adults, Simon Hollands, M. Karen Campbell, Jason A. Gilliland, Sisira Sarma

Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL)

OBJECTIVE: Frequent fast-food consumption is a well-known risk factor for obesity. This study sought to determine whether the availability of fast-food restaurants has an influence on body mass index (BMI).

METHODS: BMI and individual-level confounding variables were obtained from the 2007-08 Canadian Community Health Survey. Neighbourhood socio-demographic variables were acquired from the 2006 Canadian Census. The geographic locations of all restaurants in Canada were assembled from a validated business registry database. The density of fast-food, full-service and non-chain restaurants per 10,000 individuals was calculated for respondents’ forward sortation area. Multivariable regression analyses were conducted to analyze the association between restaurant …

A Food Retail-Based Intervention On Food Security And Consumption, Richard C. Sadler, Jason A. Gilliland, Godwin Arku

Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL)

The effect of the built environment on diet (and ensuing health outcomes) is less understood than the effect of diet on obesity. Natural experiments are increasingly advocated in place of cross-sectional studies unable to suggest causality. The central research question of this paper, therefore, asks whether a neighborhood-level food retail intervention will affect dietary habits or food security. The intervention did not have a significant impact on fruit and vegetable consumption, and the intervention population actually purchased prepared meals more frequently. More problematic, only 8% of respondents overall regularly consumed enough fruits and vegetables, and 34% were food insecure. Further …

Linking Childhood Obesity To The Built Environment: A Multi-Level Analysis Of Home And School Neighbourhood Factors Associated With Body Mass Index, Jason A. Gilliland, Claudia Rangel, Martin Healy, Patricia Tucker, Janet E. Loebach, Paul M. Hess, Meizi He, Jennifer D. Irwin, Piotr Wilk

Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL)

Objectives: This study examines environmental factors associated with BMI (body mass index) levels among adolescents with the aim of identifying potential interventions for reducing childhood obesity.

Methods: Students (n=1,048) aged 10-14 years at 28 schools in London, ON, completed a survey providing information on age, sex, height, weight, home address, etc., which was used to construct age-sex adjusted BMI z-scores. The presence of recreation opportunities, fast-food outlets and convenience stores was assessed using four areal units around each participant’s home and school neighbourhood: “circular buffers” encompassing territory within a straight-line distance of 500 m and 1000 m; and “network buffers” …