The aim of the study was to examine the potential contribution of exposure to bullying and adverse life events to the development of psychopathology in adolescents, and possible effect modification by neighbourhood social capital.

Two waves of routine, longitudinal, standard health examinations at local community paediatric health services, pertaining to 749 adolescents living in Maastricht (The Netherlands) who were attending second grade of secondary school (age 13/14 years) and approximately 2 years later going to the fourth grade (age 15/16 years), were analysed. A self-report questionnaire was used, including measures of psychopathology and two measures of negative life experiences, exposure to bullying and adverse life events, that were available for both age groups and subjected to (multilevel) regression analysis.

Exposure to bullying in the past school-year as well as the experience of adverse life events over a 12 month period, at the age of 13/14 years, predicted an increase in psychopathology at follow-up. Exposure to bullying was associated with the development of hyperactivity and emotional problems, while the experience of adverse life events predicted the development of conduct problems. Family-related adverse events had greatest effect sizes. Effects of bullying and adverse life events were not moderated by neighbourhood social capital.

Negative life experiences impact on liability to psychopathology in adolescents independent of the wider social environment.

Diabetes is a growing public health problem, and the environment in which people live and work may affect diabetes risk. The goal of the present study was to examine the association between multiple aspects of environment and diabetes risk in an employee population.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis. Home environment variables were derived using employees’ zip code. Descriptive statistics were run on all individual- and zip-code-level variables, stratified by diabetes risk and worksite. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was then conducted to determine the strongest associations with diabetes risk.

Data were collected from employee health fairs in a Midwestern health system, 2009–2012.

The data set contains 25 227 unique individuals across four years of data. From this group, using an individual’s first entry into the database, 15 522 individuals had complete data for analysis.

The prevalence of high diabetes risk in this population was 2·3 %. There was significant variability in individual- and zip-code-level variables across worksites. From the multivariable analysis, living in a zip code with higher percentage of poverty and higher walk score was positively associated with high diabetes risk, while living in a zip code with higher supermarket density was associated with a reduction in high diabetes risk.

Our study underscores the important relationship between poverty, home neighbourhood environment and diabetes risk, even in a relatively healthy employed population, and suggests a role for the employer in promoting health.

The neighbourhood built environment may affect walking behaviour of elders. However, such effects remain underexplored, especially in an Asian context. We examined associations of perceived environmental attributes with overall and neighbourhood-specific walking for transport in a sample of Chinese elders residing in Hong Kong, an ultra-dense Chinese metropolis.

Cross-sectional observational study using a two-stage stratified sampling strategy.

Hong Kong, China.

Chinese-speaking elders (n 484), with no cognitive impairment and able to walk without assistance, residing in thirty-two selected communities stratified by socio-economic status and walkability, were interviewer-administered validated measures of perceived neighbourhood environment and walking for transport.

Much higher levels of transport-related walking (mean 569 (sd 452) min/week) than found in Western samples were reported. The degree of perceived access to shops, crowdedness, presence of sitting facilities and easy access of residential entrance were independently positively related to both frequency of overall and within-neighbourhood walking for transportation. Infrastructure for walking and access to public transport were predictive of higher frequency of transport-related walking irrespective of location, while the perceived degree of land-use mix was predictive of higher levels of within-neighbourhood walking.

The provision of easy access to shops, residential entrances and sitting facilities in the neighbourhood may promote overall transport-related walking, while a good public transport network and pedestrian infrastructure linking destination-poor with destination-rich locations may compensate for the detrimental effects of living in less walkable neighbourhoods. Governmental investment in these micro- and macro-environmental features would help the promotion of an active lifestyle in elders.

To assess the relationship between adolescent perception of time to walk to neighbourhood food retail outlets and purchasing of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), fast and convenience food items, and to test for differences by urban v. suburban environment.

Cross-sectional observational study.

Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, USA.

Adolescents from two studies completed survey-based measures on perceptions of time to walk to food retail outlets from home, purchasing patterns of SSB and fast and convenience store items, perceptions of personal safety and pedestrian infrastructure, and demographic characteristics. Descriptive analysis, Spearman correlations and multivariate linear regression, accounting for clustering, were conducted.

There were 634 adolescents, approximately half male, predominantly white, with a middle-class background. Greater perceived time to food outlets was associated with less frequent purchasing of SSB, convenience store foods and fast-food items. Multivariate models showed that a perceived shorter walking time (i.e. 1−5 v. 31+ min) was significantly associated with more SSB purchasing. SSB purchases were also significantly associated with the number of food outlets within a 10 min walk (B = 0·05, P = 0·02).

A reduction in consumption of SSB and other energy-dense snacks is an important obesity prevention approach. An approach offering alternatives or reducing exposure in addition to education to alter purchasing habits may contribute to improving dietary habits and reducing the obesity epidemic.

The present study aimed to examine associations between availability of outlets where takeaway or fast food could be purchased and consumption of takeaway or fast food among children.

Cross-sectional. Parents completed a questionnaire regarding the frequency per week their child usually ate takeaway or fast foods. The availability of outlets where these foods could be purchased close to home and en route to school was determined with a Geographic Information System (presence of any outlets and density of outlets within 800 m from home and along the route to school, and distance from home to closest outlet).

Greater Melbourne and Geelong, Australia.

Three hundred and fifty-three children aged 5–6 years and 463 children aged 10–12 years.

Overall, 69·4 % of children consumed takeaway or fast foods once weekly or more often. Only one measure of availability of outlets close to home was associated with consumption; each additional outlet within 800 m was associated with 3 % lower odds of consuming takeaway or fast foods at least once weekly (OR = 0·97, 95 % CI 0·95, 1·00). There were no associations between availability en route to school and the likelihood of consuming takeaway or fast food at least once weekly.

Access to outlets where takeaway or fast food could be purchased did not predict frequency of consumption of takeaway or fast food in the expected direction. Such relationships appear to be complex and may not be adequately captured by the measures of access included in the current study.

This paper examines trends in the neighbourhood food store environment (defined by the number and geographic density of food stores of each type in a neighbourhood), and in food consumption behaviour and overweight risk of 5779 men and women.

The study used data gathered by the Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program in four cross-sectional surveys conducted from 1981 to 1990.

Four mid-sized cities in agricultural regions of California.

In total, 3154 women and 2625 men, aged 25–74 years.

From 1981 to 1990, there were large increases in the number and density of neighbourhood stores selling sweets, pizza stores, small grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. During this period, the percentage of women and men who adopted healthy food behaviours increased but so did the percentage who adopted less healthy food behaviours. The percentage who were obese increased by 28% in women and 24% in men.

Findings point to increases in neighbourhood food stores that generally offer mostly unhealthy foods, and also to the importance of examining other food pattern changes that may have a substantial impact on obesity, such as large increases in portion sizes during the 1980s.