The Effect of Food Environment on Weight Change: Does Residential Mobility Matter?

Barbara Laraia, University of California, San Francisco
Janelle Downing, University of California, Berkeley
Tara Zhang, University of California, Berkeley
William H. Dow, University of California, Berkeley
Maggi Kelly, University of California, Berkeley
Samuel Blanchard, University of California, Berkeley
Nancy Adler, University of California, San Francisco
Dean Schillinger, University of California, San Francisco
Margaret Wharton, Kaiser Permanente
Andrew Karter, Kaiser Permanente

Background: The evidence base on the relationship between food environment and body mass index (BMI) has not converged due to measurement and methodological limitations. Purpose: This study assessed the within-individual association between changes in food environment and changes in BMI among adults with diabetes from 2006-2011. Methods: The relationship between changes in food environment and 1-year lagged BMI was estimated using year and individual fixed effects. Food environment was measured using the kernel density of food venues hypothesized to have a positive influence on weight. Separate models were estimated for individuals who moved and those who stayed. Results: There was a clinically negligible, inverse statistically significant effect of changes in food environment on BMI among individuals with no change of residence but not among those who moved. Conclusions: Community-level policies to improve food environment are unlikely to have a clinically significant effect on BMI among adult patients with diabetes.