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Obesity and Diabetes, the Built Environment, and the ‘Local’ Food Economy

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  • Matthew, Salois

Abstract

Obesity and diabetes are increasingly attributed to environmental factors, however, little attention has been paid to influence of the 'local' food economy. This paper examines the association of measures relating to the built environment and the ‘local’ food economy with county-level prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Key indicators of the ‘local’ food economy include the density of farmers’ markets, volume of direct farm sales, and presence of farm-to-school programs. This paper employs a robust regression estimator to account for non-normality of the data and to accommodate outliers. Overall, the built environment is strongly associated with prevalence of obesity and diabetes and a strong 'local' food economy may play an important role in prevention. Results imply considerable scope for community-level interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew, Salois, 2010. "Obesity and Diabetes, the Built Environment, and the ‘Local’ Food Economy," MPRA Paper 27945, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:27945
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    1. Linda S Geiss & Karen Kirtland & Ji Lin & Sundar Shrestha & Ted Thompson & Ann Albright & Edward W Gregg, 2017. "Changes in diagnosed diabetes, obesity, and physical inactivity prevalence in US counties, 2004-2012," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-10, March.
    2. Brunello, Giorgio & De Paola, Maria & Labartino, Giovanna, 2014. "More apples fewer chips? The effect of school fruit schemes on the consumption of junk food," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 114-126.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    community-level intervention; diabetes; food environment; farmers market; leverage points; local food; robust regression; obesity; outliers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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