↓ Skip to main content

Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Health, September 2006
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (87th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
9 news outlets
policy
3 policy sources
twitter
10 X users
wikipedia
8 Wikipedia pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
197 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
513 Mendeley
citeulike
1 CiteULike
Title
Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs
Published in
Environmental Health, September 2006
DOI 10.1186/1476-069x-5-25
Pubmed ID
Authors

Russell P Lopez, H Patricia Hynes

Abstract

Persistent trends in overweight and obesity have resulted in a rapid research effort focused on built environment, physical activity, and overweight. Much of the focus of this research has been on the design and form of suburbs. It suggests that several features of the suburban built environment such as low densities, poor street connectivity and the lack of sidewalks are associated with decreased physical activity and an increased risk of being overweight. But compared to suburban residents, inner city populations have higher rates of obesity and inactivity despite living in neighborhoods that are dense, have excellent street connectivity and who's streets are almost universally lined with sidewalks. We suggest that the reasons for this apparent paradox are rooted in the complex interaction of land use, infrastructure and social factors affecting inner city populations. Sometimes seemingly similar features are the result of very different processes, necessitating different policy responses to meet these challenges. For example, in suburbs, lower densities can result from government decision making that leads to restrictive zoning and land use issues. In the inner city, densities may be lowered because of abandonment and disinvestment. In the suburbs, changes in land use regulations could result in a healthier built environment. In inner cities, increasing densities will depend on reversing economic trends and investment decisions that have systematically resulted in distressed housing, abandoned buildings and vacant lots. These varying issues need to be further studied in the context of the totality of urban environments, incorporating what has been learned from other disciplines, such as economics and sociology, as well as highlighting some of the more successful inner city policy interventions, which may provide examples for communities working to improve their health. Certain disparities among urban and suburban populations in obesity and overweight, physical activity and research focus have emerged that are timely to address. Comparable research on the relationship of built environment and health is needed for urban, especially inner city, neighborhoods.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 10 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 513 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 14 3%
United Kingdom 4 <1%
Canada 2 <1%
Papua New Guinea 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Indonesia 1 <1%
Tanzania, United Republic of 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 487 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 101 20%
Student > Ph. D. Student 97 19%
Student > Bachelor 65 13%
Researcher 60 12%
Student > Doctoral Student 26 5%
Other 90 18%
Unknown 74 14%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 90 18%
Medicine and Dentistry 80 16%
Environmental Science 56 11%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 38 7%
Sports and Recreations 22 4%
Other 121 24%
Unknown 106 21%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 90. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 August 2023.
All research outputs
#467,541
of 25,307,332 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Health
#141
of 1,595 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#636
of 82,270 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Health
#2
of 8 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,307,332 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,595 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 37.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 82,270 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 8 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 6 of them.