Text

theses

ETD doctoral

For adults, age 20 and older, obesity definition is based on body mass index (BMI). BMI is a ratio that shows an individual height to weight and an adult with a BMI ≥30 is considered to be obese. The rapid increase in the rates of obesity has contributed to various related diseases, for example, heart disease, stroke and ultimately death. The association of fast-food restaurant and obesity is not quite understood and is very much understudy. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the neighborhood-level fast-food restaurants to determine whether there’s an association with adult obesity in NYC after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) levels of the geographic region. Fast-food restaurants (limited) were the main focus of this study, but other restaurants (full-service) were included in the analysis in order to capture food consumed outside of home. Pearson correlations were conducted in order to assess the bivariate correlations between the study variables BMI, SES, number of fast-food restaurants, and number of restaurants. The results conclude that there were strong negative correlations between BMI and SES (r = -.421, p = .013), fast-food (r = -.417, p = .014), and number of restaurants (r = -.396, p = .021). Multiple linear regression model using the three predictors explained 16.7% of variation in predicting BMI (Adjusted R2 = 0.167). The overall model was found to be significant, F (3, 30) = 3.206, p = .037. However, none of the predictors were found to be significant: SES (B = -.365, p = .109), fast-food (B = -.640, p = .213), and restaurants (B = 0.449, p = .427). Multicollinearity may explain this paradoxical finding. Due to multicollinearity, the independent variables were assessed separately by conducting three separate linear regressions. Results of the study were that there were negative associations of SES, number of fast-food establishments, and number of restaurants, with BMI. They supported the assertion that an increased in the density of fast-food restaurants in neighborhoods does not lead to higher obesity prevalence in NYC with socioeconomic status serving as a control variable. It is recommended, however, for future studies to consider looking at the restaurant mix as well as other influential factors of the fast-food environment that may play a role in differences in weight outcome.

ETD_11779

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-q3e0-j762

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