Neighbourhoods' social, built, and natural environment characteristics and body mass index in Latin American cities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Features of neighbourhoods affect body mass index (BMI) but this has been poorly acknowledged within the highly heterogeneous and unequal contexts of Latin American cities. We evaluated associations between social, built, and natural environment characteristics of neighbourhoods with BMI, and investigated whether these associations were modified by individual socioeconomic position (SEP).

Methods

We linked individual data (n = 43 968) from national health surveys to data on neighbourhoods (n = 3428) and cities (n = 165) in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Linear mixed models were used to estimate associations between neighbourhood education, intersection density, and greenness with BMI, adjusting for individual- and city-level characteristics.

Results

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez Lopez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12011360 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature