Exploring the forest instead of the trees: An innovative method for defining obesogenic and obesoprotective environments.

Journal: Health & place
PMID: 26398219

Abstract

Past research has assessed the association of single community characteristics with obesity, ignoring the spatial co-occurrence of multiple community-level risk factors. We used conditional random forests (CRF), a non-parametric machine learning approach to identify the combination of community features that are most important for the prediction of obesogenic and obesoprotective environments for children. After examining 44 community characteristics, we identified 13 features of the social, food, and physical activity environment that in combination correctly classified 67% of communities as obesoprotective or obesogenic using mean BMI-z as a surrogate. Social environment characteristics emerged as most important classifiers and might provide leverage for intervention. CRF allows consideration of the neighborhood as a system of risk factors.

Authors

  • Claudia Nau
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Electronic address: cnau1@jhu.edu.
  • Hugh Ellis
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
  • Hongtai Huang
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
  • Brian S Schwartz
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Geisinger Center for Health Research, 100 North Academy Avenue, Danville, PA 1728, USA.
  • Annemarie Hirsch
    Geisinger Center for Health Research, 100 North Academy Avenue, Danville, PA 1728, USA.
  • Lisa Bailey-Davis
    Geisinger Center for Health Research, 100 North Academy Avenue, Danville, PA 1728, USA.
  • Amii M Kress
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
  • Jonathan Pollak
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
  • Thomas A Glass
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Global Obesity Prevention Center, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.

Keywords

External Resources

Popular Topics
Recent Journals