Perceptions of the neighbourhood food environment and food insecurity of families with children during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Background: Changes to the food environment during the Covid-19 pandemic significantly influenced food acquisition and consumption, contributing to a higher prevalence of food insecurity. We assessed the perception of the food environment and its association with food insecurity in households of Brazilian schoolchildren during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey between March and May 2021 with adults (n = 475) responsible for purchasing and/or preparing food at the students' homes aged between 6 months and 17 years enrolled in public school from two Brazilian municipalities.

Consumer food environments change over a 5-year period.

Objective: Evaluate the 5-year changes in the consumers' food environment in the area of a health promotion service in Brazilian primary health care. Our hypothesis is that the consumers' food environment in the areas with primary healthcare services has changes that may favour healthy eating habits over time.

Design: Longitudinal study.

Socioeconomic Position, Pre-Obesity and Obesity in Latin American Cities: A Systematic Review.

Currently the socioeconomic gradient of obesity it is not well understood in the urban population in Latin American. This study reviewed the literature assessing associations between pre-obesity, obesity, and socioeconomic position (SEP) in adults living in urban areas in Latin American countries. PubMed and SciELO databases were used.

A longitudinal analysis of the fluctuation of food stores in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Background: Changes in food environments have the potential to affect consumption, nutritional status, and health, and understanding these changes is of utmost importance. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the fluctuation of food stores that sell fruits and vegetables over five years in the health promotion service area of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Methods: This was an ecological study that used data from a food environment audit conducted in the realm of Brazilian PHC.

Scientific research on food environments in Brazil: a scoping review.

Objective: To map the scientific research on food environments in Brazil, based on the following questions: How many studies have addressed food environments?; What study designs and methodological approaches were applied?; What is the geographic scope of the studies?; What scenarios and dimensions of food environments were studied?; Which population groups were studied?; How were food environments conceptualised?; What are the main limitations of the studies?

Design: Scoping review conducted in four databases, from January 2005 to December 2022, using different food environment-related terms to cover the main types and dimensions proposed in the literature. The studies were independently selected by two authors. A narrative synthesis was used to summarise the findings.

Health economic impacts associated with the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in Brazil.

Introduction: The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is among the main risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study aimed to estimate the financial costs of hospitalizations and procedures of high and medium complexity for NCDs attributable to the consumption of SSBs in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) in 2019.

Methods: This ecological study used data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 and the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System (DATASUS).

Multiple health risk behaviors, including high consumption of ultra-processed foods and their implications for mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background And Aim: The growing increase in diet- and behavior-related illnesses has drawn the attention of many epidemiologists who attribute such changes to the epidemiological and nutritional transition. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the association between the combined occurrence of health risk behaviors, such as sedentary lifestyles, high weekly consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and non-daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, and symptoms of anxiety or depression in adults.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on an epidemiological survey in two Brazilian cities.

Are Women's Empowerment and Income Inequality Associated with Excess Weight in Latin American Cities?

While income gradients and gender inequalities in excess weight have been noted elsewhere, data from Latin American cities is lacking. We analyzed gender-specific associations between city-level women's empowerment and income inequality with individual-level overweight/obesity, assessing how these associations vary by individual education or living conditions within cities in Latin America. Data came from national surveys and censuses, and was compiled by the SALURBAL project (Urban Health in Latin America).

City-Level Travel Time and Individual Dietary Consumption in Latin American Cities: Results from the SALURBAL Study.

There is limited empirical evidence on how travel time affects dietary patterns, and even less in Latin American cities (LACs). Using data from 181 LACs, we investigated whether longer travel times at the city level are associated with lower consumption of vegetables and higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and if this association differs by city size. Travel time was measured as the average city-level travel time during peak hours and city-level travel delay time was measured as the average increase in travel time due to congestion on the street network during peak hours.

Is city-level travel time by car associated with individual obesity or diabetes in Latin American cities? Evidence from 178 cities in the SALURBAL project.

There is growing evidence that longer travel time by private car poses physical and mental risks. Individual-level obesity and diabetes, two of the main public health challenges in low- and middle-income contexts, could be associated to city-level travel times by car. We used individual obesity and diabetes data from national health surveys from individuals in 178 Latin American cities, compiled and harmonized by the SALURBAL project.

Retail food environment in a Brazilian metropolis over the course of a decade: evidence of restricted availability of healthy foods.

Objective: To evaluate changes in the retail food environment profile in a Brazilian metropolis over a 10-year period.

Design: An ecological study was conducted in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The addresses of formal food establishments were geocoded and classified according to their sold-food profile.

Web Data Mining: Validity of Data from Google Earth for Food Retail Evaluation.

To overcome the challenge of obtaining accurate data on community food retail, we developed an innovative tool to automatically capture food retail data from Google Earth (GE). The proposed method is relevant to non-commercial use or scholarly purposes. We aimed to test the validity of web sources data for the assessment of community food retail environment by comparison to ground-truth observations (gold standard).

The transtheoretical model is an effective weight management intervention: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Given the current worldwide epidemic of obesity, there is a demand for interventions with higher impact, such as those carried out in the primary health care (PHC) setting. Here we evaluate the effect of intervention performed according to the stages of change of the transtheoretical model (TTM) for weight management.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial in Brazilian PHC offered free physical exercise and nutrition education.

Environmental and individual factors associated with quality of life of adults who underwent bariatric surgery: a cohort study.

Introduction: Obesity is a multifactorial chronic condition associated with genetic, behavioral and environmental factors. Understanding the role of the built and social environment in Quality of Life (QOL) is critical to reducing the negative impacts of the environment on health.

Objective: To estimate the built and social environmental and individual factors that influence the QOL of adults who underwent bariatric surgery.

The food environment in Latin America: a systematic review with a focus on environments relevant to obesity and related chronic diseases.

Objective: Food environments may be contributing to the rapid increase in obesity occurring in most Latin American (LA) countries. The present study reviews literature from LA that (i) describes the food environment and policies targeting the food environment (FEP); and (ii) analytic studies that investigate associations between the FEP and dietary behaviours, overweight/obesity and obesity related chronic diseases. We focus on six dimensions of the FEP: food retail, provision, labelling, marketing, price and composition.

Consumer food environment and overweight.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between aspects of the consumer food environment in food stores selling fruit and vegetables (FVs) and the incidence of overweight among users of a Brazilian primary health care service.

Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed individual-level and food environment variables, within the context of a representative sample of a primary health care service in a Brazilian city (the Health Academy Program [HAP]) in 2013. Users of HAP units and multiple aspects of the consumer food environment (availability, diversity, variety, quality, advertising, and price) related to FVs and ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) were examined.

Local food environment and fruit and vegetable consumption: An ecological study.

Ecological studies are essential for understanding the environment-diet relationship. The purpose of this study was to describe environmental conditions and their relationship with fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among Brazilian public health service users in the city of Belo Horizonte. We evaluated food stores contained within 1600 m buffer zones at 18 Health Academy Programme sites, from 2013 to 2014.