THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

URBAN SPRAWL &

OBESITY

OUTLİNE1. Introduction

Mean of obesityGoal of this articleRatios of obesity in U.S

2. Methodology3. Result and discussion4. Application in Turkey

DEFINITION OF OBESITY

Obesity is a condition in which the natural

energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissue of

humans and other mammals, exceeds

healthy limits. It is commonly defined as a

body mass index (BMI)(weight divided by

height squared) of 30 kg/m2 or higher.

( Wikipedia)

GOAL OF THE ARTICLE

The aim of this paper is to understand the correlation between urban sprawl and obesity. The previous findings which stress there is a positive relationship between sprawl and obesity. Previous Works figure out that urban sprawl cause to be obese. But in this article emphasize that more sprawling neighborhood may not be cause to be obese because of genetic and individual's behavior.

GOAL OF THE ARTİCLE

This debate brings us an important question which is there any correlation between obesity and urban sprawl? According to this article this positive relationship between obesity and sprawl arise from self-select of obese people.

GOAL OF THE ARTICLE

To reply this question we should look at two different side. One of them is that urban sprawl causes obesity and the other one is the individuals who are more likely to be obese choose to live in more sprawling neighborhoods.

This means which one is affected by the other one, do obese people choose to live in urban sprawl or does sprawl cause people to be obese?

•OBESITY IN U.S WITH NUMBERSIn The United States the percent of

obesity was 12.7% of men and 17% of women in the late 1970s but these proportions are about 27.7% of men and 34% of women in the 2000

To understand better why obesity is very important problem nowadays we should know that health spending on obesity-related illness in the United States now exceeds that for smoking or problem-drinking-related illnesses. In short, obesity is one of today’s top public health concerns.

HOW URBAN SPRAWL MAY CAUSE TO BE OBESE?

Compact neighborhoods may induce people to use their cars less often than those where buildings are scattered. Similarly, neighborhoods where houses are mixed with a variety of local grocery stores and other shops may encourage people to walk more and eat healthier food than those where all land is devoted to housing.

Bank

Shopping

CENTER

H

B S

H

Small City

Big City

Kate is living…

Sawyer is living…

This logic get the previous works to reach

the cause of the obesity is more sprawling

neighborhoods. But in this article authors

emphasize that there should be any other

variable must be included into the regression.

METHODOLOGY

The authors did use longitudional study for this work because they follow individuals over time to control for unobserved propensities to be obese.

In this article primary measure of obesity is Body Mass Index (BMI) which comparisons of weight holding height constant (kg/m2).There are two main variables for calculating BMI are individual’s observed characteristics and unobserved propensity to be obese.

To isolate the effects of neighborhood characteristics

on obesity, authors require a data set which:

records an individual’s height and weight to calculate BMI;

records individual characteristics that may be associated with higher BMI;

precisely locates individuals to measure the characteristics of their residential neighborhoods;

follows individuals over time so that we can control for unobserved propensities to be obese.

Methodology contd…

This artcile analysis will focus on two variables intended to measure these two aspects: residential-sprawl which measures the scatteredness of neighborhood residential development and mixed-use, which describes the neighborhood supply of retail destinations and churches

They added some other observable and unobservable variables to see how the relationship would change.

They search result for each sex separately for the variables which are;

AgeBlackHispanicYears schoolingDaily smokerMarriedWorking spouseChildren in householdNewbornIn workAnnual hours worked (1000)Annual earnings ($1000)Job strengthJob strenuousness

There are different results for each observable and unobservable data. For instance; Black men have a BMI that is, on average, 0.704 higher than white men with the same age and neighborhood characteristics, while Hispanics have a BMI that is 1.691 higher. As both blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live downtown (typically areas with low residential-sprawl and high mixed-use) these differences in average BMI work against the correlation with the landscape variables. Authors reached the same results for other variables and they see that sprawl is not only major variable. They proved that there may be other variables can affect to be obese.

RESULT & DISCUSSIONAccording to authors the individuals

who are more likely to be obese choose to live in more sprawling neighborhoods which is self-select of obese people. To summarize, they find that there is no relationship between BMI and neighborhood characteristics once authors control for both observed and unobserved individual effects.

We have figured out that sprawl is not unique reason to be obese by itself. There are other several reasons to be obese. So, we agree with the authors. Life style of people, eating healtier food, more physically activities, education… etc, can prevent to be obese.

The first population based study in Turkey, Turkish

Adult Risk Factor Study (TEKHARF), was undertaken

in the year 1990. The ‘TEKHARF’ study was carried

out by the Turkish Society of Cardiology in randomly

selected 59 cities in seven geographical regions.

Prevalence of obesity in Turkey ; V. D. Yumuk

Obesity and overweight are increasing in Turkey

according to the field surveys that were carried out a

decade apart (TEKHARF 1990 and 2000). The overall

prevalence of obesity in adults was 18.6% in the year

1990. Ten years later in 2000, the prevalence was

21.9%, which shows a relative increase rate of 17.7%.

In conclusion, obesity is an alarming health issue in

Turkey and it has shown an increasing trend over time

according to the TEKHARF study.

Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-

for-height that is commonly used in classifying

overweight and obesity in adult populations and

individuals. It is defined as the weight in kilograms

divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m2).

OBESITY: IN WORLD AND TURKEY

Causes of obesity:

Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a

number of factors including: a global shift in diet towards

increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and

sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients;

and a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the

increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing

modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

National prevalence of underweight, overweight andobesity in Turkey: cross sectional study of arepresentative adult population: Tuncay Delibasi, Yasar Karaaslan, Ihsan Ustun, Ertugrul Koroglu, Seref Hosgor

Turkish citizens aged ≥ 18 who can represent adult population and permanently resident in Turkey were taken to this study in 1999-2000. The nationally representative sample population was selected from the target population using the census, which was performed by national institute of statistics at 1997. The reason of choosing six cities is when Turkey is divided into six regions these cities represent the demographic features of their own region.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is similar in rural areas and cities;

The prevalence of obesity is highest in people who are illiterate and lowest in people who graduated from high schools or universities. As education level increases the prevalence of obesity decreases;

An investigation for TURKEY ; 22 Nisan, 2006 ; Medical Faculty of Istanbul University

The population of 22% has an obesity problem whose age is older 20 in Turkey. They stressed that city life cause to rise frequency of obesity . They gave interesting informations supporting their idea that the ratio of obesity is 23.8 % in urban area but 19.6% in rural area. But obesity ratios ‘ difference is decreasing between rural and urban areas. He explains this decrease by the 3 following factors which are :

Industrialization take place instead of agriculture sector , this cause a

decrease in physical activities of people who live in rural areas.

Increasing in social welfare forces to change nutrition habits of the

people.

They also explain why the obesity is not prevelant in the rural area by the factors ;

People have less stress than the people who live in urban areaLimited facilities for moving one place to another one causes individuals make more physical activities.

Because of those factors; prevalence of obesity is less in East regions (17.2%) than West regions (21.6%).