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This study aimed to describe the community food environment of a Brazilian metropolis using secondary data from 2015. To construct this database, the State and Municipal Secretariat were asked to provide information on 12 types of food sales establishment in the city of Belo Horizonte. Establishments that were not common between the two databases were checked using the Google Street View database. The final database consisted of establishments that were virtually checked as well as existing establishments in the two secondary databases. The establishments included in the final database were categorized as healthy, unhealthy, or mixed according to the predominance of food sales. Unhealthy establishments are the most available in the food environment. Lower income areas have a lower availability of all types of establishment, particularly healthy ones. As income increases, there is an increase in the availability of mixed and unhealthy establishments. Understanding the food environment of cities is important for decision makers to identify places where the implementation of public equipment for food safety and nutrition is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the association between economic residential segregation and food environment. Design: Ecological: Food stores categorised according to the NOVA classification were geocoded, and absolute availability was calculated for each neighbourhood. Segregation was measured using local Gi* statistic, a measure of the sd between the economic composition of a neighbourhood (the proportion of heads of households in neighbourhoods earn monthly income of 0 to 3 minimum wages) and larger metropolitan area, weighted by the economic composition of surrounding neighbourhoods. Segregation was categorised as high (most segregated), medium (integrated) and low (less segregated or integrated). A proportional odds models were used to model the association between segregation and food environment. Setting: Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Participants: Food stores. Results: After adjustment for covariates, neighbourhoods characterised by high economic segregation had fewer food stores overall compared with neighbourhoods characterised by low segregation (OR = 0·56; 95 % CI (0·45, 0·69)). In addition, high segregated neighbourhoods were 49 % (OR = 0·51; 95 % CI (0·42, 0·61)) and 45 % (OR = 0·55; 95 % CI (0·45, 0·67)) less likely to have a high number of food stores that predominantly marketed ultra-processed foods and mixed food stores, respectively, as compared with their counterparts. Conclusions: Economic segregation is associated with differences in the distribution of food stores. Both low and high segregation territories should be prioritised by public policies to ensure healthy and adequate nutrition as a right for all communities. The former must continue to be protected from access to unhealthy commercial food outlets, while the latter must be the locus of actions that limit the availability of unhealthy commercial food store. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Childhood-juvenile obesity is a globally acknowledged public health issue. The school environment has been widely assessed because it is where adolescents stay longer during the day, and it may have impact on obesity. School became a crucial environment for obesity prevention in children and adolescents. The aim of the present study was to associate schools' internal environment factors and its surrounding areas with obesity in adolescents from a Brazilian metropolis.Methods: Cross-sectional study based on data from the Study on Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents. The sample comprised 2,530 adolescents in the age group 12-17 years, who were enrolled in public and private schools in Belo Horizonte City, Brazil. Obesity was the dependent variable based on the cut-off point score-z + 2 for body mass index based on age. School environment's independent variables were 'managerial dependence type', 'number of drinking fountains', 'school sports environment' and 'ready-to-eat food shops' around the school (within an 800 m buffer).Results: Obesity prevailed in 7.21% in sample. The largest number of drinking fountains decrease by 9% the chances of obesity in adolescents enrolled in public and private schools; however, the second and third terciles recorded for the number of ready-to-eat food shops within the 800 m buffer around schools increased by 24% and 44% the chances of obesity, respectively.Conclusion: School food environment aspects such as the number of operational drinking fountains and the availability of ready-to-eat food shops around the school were associated with obesity in adolescents from a Brazilian metropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]