Impacts of Neighborhood Built Environment on Obesity and Related Behaviors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The identification of built environment elements in neighborhoods that have significant impacts on obesity is the basis for scientifically preventing obesity and related chronic diseases, as well as formulating and implementing spatial intervention policies. In recent years, studies on the relationship between neighborhood built environment and obesity and related behaviors have increased rapidly in China with preliminary progresses. This paper systematically reviews the empirical research on the impacts of neighborhood built environment on obesity and related behaviors which was done in China from 2011 to 2021 and selects 44 papers to extract, summarize, and quantitatively synthesize the research results by using the meta-analysis method and through the weighted Z-test. The meta-analysis shows that, according to their significance, the measured built environment elements in neighborhoods that have significant impacts on obesity and related behaviors are ranked in a descending order as accessibilitydensity of physical activity facilities, accessibility-density of bus stops/transit stations, street connectivity--crossing density, and mixed land use rate--destination amount. Meanwhile, the elements of residential density--population density, accessibility-distance to bus stops/transit stations, and accessibility-distance to physical activity facilities do not show remarkable statistic difference. This implies that community planning should highlight the measures of increasing land use for sports facilities and green spaces, improving public transport system, optimizing road network, and strengthening mixed land use to build healthy communities that can facilitate the prevention of obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]