Identification of Factors Associated With Variation in US County-Level Obesity Prevalence Rates Using Epidemiologic vs Machine Learning Models.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Obesity is a leading cause of high health care expenditures, disability, and premature mortality. Previous studies have documented geographic disparities in obesity prevalence.

Objective

To identify county-level factors associated with obesity using traditional epidemiologic and machine learning methods.

Design, setting, and participants

Cross-sectional study using linear regression models and machine learning models to evaluate the associations between county-level obesity and county-level demographic, socioeconomic, health care, and environmental factors from summarized statistical data extracted from the 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings and merged with US Census data from each of 3138 US counties. The explanatory power of the li

SUBMITTER: Scheinker D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6487629 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature