Association between access to convenience stores and childhood obesity: A systematic review

Abstract

Summary Childhood obesity increases the risk of adulthood obesity and is associated with other adverse health outcomes later in life. It may be influenced by environmental characteristics of neighborhoods where children live, particularly dietary supply–related environmental factors. This study aimed to systematically review the evidence on the association between access to convenience stores and childhood obesity. We searched and filtered relevant literature in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library published before 1 January 2019. Data on the basic characteristics of studies, measures of access to convenience stores, and associations of convenience stores with weight‐related behaviors and outcomes were extracted from 41 included studies. In general, the density of and proximity to convenience stores in children's residential and school neighborhoods were positively associated with unhealthy eating behaviors. However, their associations with children's weight status varied significantly by regions. The association between convenience store access and children's weight status was found to be negative in Canada, rather mixed in the United States and the United Kingdom, and not significant in East Asia. We suggest future research to clearly define the convenience store, better measure the access to convenience store, and also measure children's journey and food purchasing and consumption behaviors, to explain pathways from convenience store access to childhood obesity for designing effective interventions and policies.

A large prospective investigation of outdoor light at night and obesity in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

“…Numerous studies have focused on individual-level risk factors for obesity, such as diet, physical activity, sleep, and psychosocial stress [6][7][8][9][10]. A growing body of literature also suggests that contextual factors, including the built environment, [11][12][13][14] food environment, [15][16][17][18] neighborhood socioeconomic status, [19][20][21] neighborhood social support, [22] and neighborhood safety, [23,24] may play an indispensable role in the development of obesity. Recently, artificial light at night (LAN) has been identified as an environmental factor that may also contribute to obesity [25].…”

The Frequency and Context of Snacking among Children: An Objective Analysis Using Wearable Cameras

“…Individual-level factors include gender [ 9 ], age [ 10 ], distractions (e.g., TV viewing) [ 11 ] and stress [ 12 , 13 ]. Environmental and social factors also play a role, including the availability of unhealthy foods in homes, schools and neighbourhoods [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], food prices [ 17 ], food and beverage marketing [ 18 ], convenience store access [ 12 , 19 ], parental modelling [ 14 ] and peer social norms [ 20 ].…”

Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores

“…In many Western-developed countries, there is a higher density of convenience stores in close proximity to schools in socioeconomically deprived areas [ 10 , 14 , 15 ], and in some countries, especially in South Korea and Japan, the number of convenience stores have increased as part of the overall all food environment [ 16 , 17 ]. This is of concern, as the proximity and density of convenience stores in a child’s neighbourhood, including their home and school neighbourhoods, is positively associated with unhealthy eating behaviours [ 18 , 19 ] and overweight [ 7 , 20 ].…”