The type of restaurants in a given location might have a relationship with that area’s rate of obesity according to research from the University of Pennsylvania, as recently reported by Elsevier. The researchers analyzed potential connections between the restaurants in 544 counties across the United States and the weight status of each county’s residents. One of their findings was that a county with a higher density of fast-food restaurants is associated with higher weight of the residents of that county. The results of this research were published in the Feb. 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
The researchers found that a higher total restaurant density is significantly associated with lower weight status. But, once the type of restaurants in a given county are broken into categories for fast-food or full-service types, they found that counties with a higher density of full-service restaurants are associated with lower weight, while counties with a higher density of fast-food restaurants are associated with higher weights.
“The results reported here demonstrate that the restaurant environment is associated with weight status net of individual- and county-level factors,” write the authors. “The relationship is complex, suggesting that the restaurant environment’s influence goes well beyond a simple positive association between restaurant density and weight status. Rather, different components of the restaurant environment exhibit differential associations with weight status. Individuals residing in areas with a high density of total and full-service restaurants exhibit lower weight status, possibly indicating that these areas possess a more advantageous eating environment...Those who reside in areas possessing a higher relative number of fast-food to full-service restaurants have a higher weight status. Hence, the relative availability of alternative types of away-from-home eating establishments may most accurately capture the set of food choices available to individuals and may be salient in determining eating behaviors and ultimately weight status.”
This leads the authors to conclude that the study supports the notion that “fast-food restaurants are a contributor to obesogenic environments.”