Residential neighborhood, geographic work environment, and work economic sector: associations with body fat measured by bioelectrical impedance in the RECORD Study.

Purpose: Studies of associations between geographic environment and obesity have mostly examined body mass index and focused on residential neighborhoods. We investigated associations between residential neighborhoods, geographic work environments, and work economic sectors and the fat mass index (FMI) and percentage of fat mass (%FM).

Methods: Data on 4331 participants from the French RECORD Study geolocated at their residence and workplace were analyzed. Body composition was assessed by bioelectrical impedance analyzers. Multilevel linear regression was used to investigate the determinants of FMI and %FM.

Results: After adjustment, among men, the FMI and %FM increased independently with decreasing density of population and educational level in the residential neighborhood. Among women, the residential educational level was related to the FMI and %FM. Among men, a higher FMI and %FM were observed among participants working in the construction and transportation/communication sectors than in the education sector. For women, the FMI was higher among participants working in the public administration and health/social work sectors than in the transport/communication sector. A long home-work distance was associated with a higher FMI among women. There was evidence that body mass index cannot fully capture work economic sector effects on fat mass.

Conclusions: Public health interventions to reduce social/territorial disparities in obesity should also consider the different contexts to which the participants belong, such as residential environments and work economic sectors.