Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as poor diets and physical inactivity account for most of the cardiometabolic disease (CMD) burden, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Much of this burden is mediated by the effects of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors on overweight and obesity, and disproportionally impacts certain population groups-including those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Combined lifestyle interventions (CLIs), which target multiple behaviors, have the potential to prevent CMD, but their implementation, reach and effectiveness in routine practice are often limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to assess sociodemographic, personality, and psychological moderators, and lifestyle behavioural mediators, of the association between obesogenicity of neighbourhoods and weight status in Dutch adults. This cross-sectional study used baseline data of 150,506 adult participants of the Lifelines study. To quantify obesogenicity of Dutch neighbourhoods, the Obesogenic Built Environment CharacterisTics (OBCT) index was used, calculated for 1000 m circular buffers around participant's residencies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Epidemiological and toxicological studies indicate that increased exposure to air pollutants can lead to neurodegenerative diseases. To further confirm this relationship, we evaluated the association between exposure to ambient air pollutants and corneal nerve measures as a surrogate for neurodegeneration, using corneal confocal microscopy.
Methods: We used population-based observational cross-sectional data from The Maastricht Study including N = 3635 participants (mean age 59.
Regular consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. UPF are widely available in supermarkets. Nudging and pricing strategies are promising strategies to promote healthier supermarket purchases and may reduce UPF purchases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of the social environment can facilitate positive health outcomes through active community engagement, normalization of healthy behaviors, and stress buffering. We aim to examine the associations of neighborhood social cohesion with changes in BMI over time. A total of 7641 participants from The Maastricht Study between the ages of 40 and 75 years were analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Overweight and obesity impose a considerable individual and social burden, and the urban environments might encompass factors that contribute to obesity. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research that takes into account the simultaneous interaction of multiple environmental factors.
Objectives: Our objective was to perform an exposome-wide association study of body mass index (BMI) in a multicohort setting of 15 studies.
Background: Supermarket interventions are promising to promote healthier dietary patterns, but not all individuals may be equally susceptible. We explored whether the effectiveness of nudging and pricing strategies on diet quality differs by psychological and grocery shopping characteristics.
Methods: We used data of the 12-month Supreme Nudge parallel cluster-randomised controlled supermarket trial, testing nudging and pricing strategies to promote healthier diets.
Intro: We aim to investigate the relationship between social cohesion and sedentary behavior (SB), total physical activity (PA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and dietary quality. Additionally, we assess whether these associations are independent of neighborhood walkability and the food environment.
Methods: A total of 7641 participants from The Maastricht Study in the Netherlands between the ages of 40 and 75 years were analyzed.
Background: Context-specific interventions may contribute to sustained behaviour change and improved health outcomes. We evaluated the real-world effects of supermarket nudging and pricing strategies and mobile physical activity coaching on diet quality, food-purchasing behaviour, walking behaviour, and cardiometabolic risk markers.
Methods: This parallel cluster-randomised controlled trial included supermarkets in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods across the Netherlands with regular shoppers aged 30-80 years.
Background: The growth of urban dwelling populations globally has led to rapid increases of research and policy initiatives addressing associations between the built environment and physical activity (PA). Given this rapid proliferation, it is important to identify priority areas and research questions for moving the field forward. The objective of this study was to identify and compare research priorities on the built environment and PA among researchers and knowledge users (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous cross-sectional and longitudinal observational studies revealed positive relationships between contextual built environment components and walking behavior. Due to severe restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, physical activity was primarily performed within the immediate living area. Using this unique opportunity, we evaluated whether built environment components were associated with the magnitude of change in walking activity in adults during COVID-19 restrictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In 2050 two-thirds of the world's population is predicted to live in cities, which asks for a better understanding of how the urban environment affects mental health. Urbanicity has repeatedly been found to be a risk factor, in particular for psychosis. Here, we explored what factors of the urban exposome underlie the association between urban characteristics and psychotic experiences (PE) in adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To systematically review the current evidence on the association between the neighbourhood food environment and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults.
Methods And Results: We searched the literature databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE for studies published between 1 January 2000 and 1 May 2022. Studies focusing on the indoor home, workplace, or school food environment were excluded.
Background: We investigated the association of neighborhood walkability with accelerometer-measured physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) and examined whether objective and subjective measures of walkability resulted in similar findings.
Methods: PA and SB from the first 7689 Maastricht Study participants ages 40-75 from 2010 to 2017 were measured using accelerometers for 7 days. Mean daily step count, light-intensity PA, moderate- to vigorous- intensity PA (MVPA), and SB were calculated.
Aims: To provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence on objectively measured neighbourhood built environment exposures in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in adults.
Methods And Results: We searched seven databases for systematic reviews on associations between objectively measured long-term built environmental exposures, covering at least one domain (i.e.
We assessed the quality of food-related OpenStreetMap (OSM) data in urban areas of five European countries. We calculated agreement statistics between point-of-interests (POIs) from OSM and from Google Street View (GSV) in five European regions. We furthermore assessed correlations between exposure measures (distance and counts) from OSM data and administrative data from local data sources on food environment data in three European countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adults of low socioeconomic position (SEP) are generally less physically active than those who are more socioeconomically advantaged, which increases their cardiovascular disease incidence risk. Moreover, individuals of low SEP are often less easily reached with physical activity (PA) interventions than individuals of higher SEP. Smartphone apps have been presented as a promising platform for delivering PA interventions to difficult-to-reach individuals of low SEP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Serum ferritin levels are increasingly being used to assess iron stores. Considerable variation in ferritin levels within and between individuals has been observed, but our current understanding of factors that explain this variation is far from complete. We aim to combine multiple potential determinants in an integrative model, and investigate their relative importance and potential interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF