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Clinical Summary

Access to ready-to-eat food outlets and type 2 diabetes risk

Takeaway

  • Access to ready-to-eat food outlets was associated with higher odds of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a large UK-wide population sample.

Why this matters

  • Top-down interventions aimed at minimising unhealthy food access as through constraining, via licensing or planning regulations, the location of outlier fast food outlets within residential areas could potentially reduce unhealthy consumption and risks for chronic diseases.

Study design

  • Cross-sectional observational study used data regarding 347,551 participants who were middle-aged or older (aged 37-73 years) from the UK Biobank.
  • Primary outcome was the risk for diabetes.
  • Funding: University of Hong Kong, UK Biobank, and UK Economic & Social Research Council.

Key results

  • Compared with no exposure to restaurants and cafeterias, participants in the highest exposure category (>4.76 units/km2) showed higher odds of T2DM (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.21;   P=.0007).
  • Participants exposed to hot and cold takeaway in the second highest category of density (0.75-2.15 units/km2) reported higher odds of T2DM (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.14; P=.0171).
  • Participants in the highest quintile of street distance to nearest ready-to-eat food outlet (i.e., those further away) reported lower odds of T2DM (for restaurants and cafeterias: OR, 0.84, 95% CI, 0.78-0.91; P<.0001; and for hot and cold takeaways: OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85-0.98; P=.0173).
  • These effects were most pronounced in overweight participants (P=.0329), but no significant interaction by sex, income or UK Biobank collection centre.

Limitations

  • Observational study of cross-sectional design.

References


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