Obesity and diabetes, the built environment, and the 'local' food economy in the United States, 2007

Obesity and diabetes are increasingly attributed to environmental factors, however, little attention has been paid to the influence of the 'local' food economy. This paper examines the association of measures relating to the built environment and 'local' agriculture with U.S. county-level prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Key indicators of the 'local' food economy include the density of farmers' markets and the presence of farms with direct sales. This paper employs a robust regression estimator to account for non-normality of the data and to accommodate outliers. Overall, the built environment is associated with the 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.

► Obesity and diabetes have been linked to the built environment. ► A full set of environmental factors is examined including the 'local' food economy. ► Local food indicators include farmers' markets and presence of direct farm sales. ► Several built environment factors have an association with obesity and diabetes. ► The 'local' food economy has a negative association with obesity and diabetes.