Time-varying residential neighborhood effects on cardiometabolic health

Cardio-metabolic (CM) diseases are one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide and a major contributor to health disparities. Epidemiology has traditionally focused on individual-level risk factors of CM diseases, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Environmental causes, however, remain poorly understood at the population level, and are therefore not addressed by public health interventions. Though some host-related factors do play a role, the dramatic increase in CM diseases over recent decades is largely attributed to changes in the socio-economic environment in which behavioral patterns occur, and in the physical environment, such as urban sprawl, amenities, transport infrastructure, which have resulted in socially patterned increases of motorized transportation, fast-food consumption, sedentary occupations and leisure activities, exacerbating CM-related disorders.
The MET’HOOD project investigates the relationships between the socio-economic and physical environmental characteristics of residential neighborhoods, behavioral CM risk factors, and the metabolic syndrome (a combinaison of major biological CM risk factors), over a nine-year period. This project addresses several shortcomings in neighborhood and CM health research by: i) examining the long-term effects of time-varying environmental exposure, ii) completing a country-wide, population-based longitudinal study in Europe (Luxembourg), and iii) investigating social disparities in time-varying neighborhood effects.
Being developed by a team of health and urban geographers, epidemiologists, nutritionists, and sports scientists, with the support of local stakeholders in public health and urban planning, this project will provide timely and representative evidence to: i) identify specific environmental characteristics that increase or reduce CM risk factors, ii) target sub-populations and neighborhoods at risk of less favorable CM risk profiles, and iii) help tailor land use interventions in Europe aiming at reducing CM risk factors and related social disparities.