People who live or work near to a greater number of takeaway outlets are more likely to eat more takeaway food and to be overweight, but new research indicates that neighbourhoods that are saturated with fast food outlets may be particularly unhealthy for people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
The study from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the University of Cambridge, suggests that policies to improve the food environment in towns and cities could be helpful in tackling social inequalities in diet and health.
Nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese in the UK, and it is thought that this may be due in part to increased takeaway food consumption: the amount spent on takeaway foods over the past decade has risen by 29 per cent in the UK, where £28 billion worth of takeaway foods are now purchased annually.
To observe the relationships between neighbourhoods, education, diet and obesity, researchers at CEDAR used data from a cohort of almost 6,000 adults aged 29–62 years in Cambridgeshire. Individuals were asked about their highest educational attainment, eating patterns, were weighed and measured by trained researchers, and had the density of takeaway outlets in their home and work neighbourhoods calculated. The results are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For the first time the researchers observed consistent differences in diet and weight by education at all levels of neighbourhood exposure to takeaway outlets. Furthermore, where exposure to takeaway outlets was greatest, differences in diet and weight across education groups were most pronounced. In other words, the availability of takeaways seemed to be amplifying existing social inequalities.
Individuals with greatest exposure to takeaway outlets consumed around a third more unhealthy takeaway food per day if they were the poorest educated (47g per day) than if they were highest educated (36g per day). Over a year, this is the equivalent of over 4kg of extra unhealthy food. The least educated also had the greatest risk of obesity where the exposure to takeaway outlets was highest.
‘Neighbourhoods are clearly important in shaping what all of us eat, no matter how educated we are,’ explains Dr Thomas Burgoine from CEDAR, part of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
‘But this effect appears to be much greater for those with lower levels of education.’
The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the NIHR and the Wellcome Trust.
