Auchincloss and co-authors examined neighborhood walkability and healthy food access for their relationship to obesity in a population studied over five years.

Dr. Amy Auchincloss, an assistant professor in Drexel’s School of Public Health, was the lead author of a study recently published in the journal Obesity, showing that healthy food access in neighborhoods may have helped reduce the incidence of obesity by about 10 percent. You can read more about the study in our press release.

Here are some added comments and discussion points Auchincloss shared about the study and its implications:

On some of the strengths of this study compared to others that have examined similar questions about neighborhoods and health:

Most studies to date in this area have been cross-sectional and/or single-city studies.  This study was longitudinal and recruited a diverse sample of participants from six sites around the U.S.

This means that, compared…