Associations of Body Mass Index with Food Environments, Physical Activity and Smoking

Abstract

This paper identifies spatial patterns of body mass index (BMI) and obesity in the Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador, by applying spatial autocorrelation. We identified BMI hotspots in western rural parishes, and hotspots of obesity in northern urban parishes. We then explored associations between distances to food outlets, physical activity and smoking (independent variables), and BMI and obesity (BMI > 30) (dependent variables) by applying global regressions (GR) and geographical weighted regressions (GWR). Smoking was found to be significantly negatively associated with BMI and obesity. Distance to supermarkets was found to be negatively associated with obesity.