Social Environment and Health Lab

Achieving lasting behavioral improvements to maintain health in mid-life and set the stage for later-life health is a pressing public health challenge considering mid-life is a particularly vulnerable life stage in which obesity rates peak and chronic diseases emerge. Research suggests that the environment may play a critical role in triggering health behaviors. However, further work is needed to understand how a person’s everyday and momentary activity-space environments influence their dietary and physical activity (PA) behaviors and for whom the environment matters and under what conditions. To meet this need, the Everyday Experiences and Environments (E3) Study employed a dynamic environmental exposure approach using geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) methodologies to supply evidence on the environment’s role in between- and within-person variations in diet and PA during mid-life in a racially/ethnically diverse sample. This research is significant because the results can inform new targets for lifestyle and place-based interventions to improve health during mid-life and set the stage for better later-life health. The E3 Study is an ongoing, NIH-funded project with a proposed end date of 2025.

Link to Website: https://e3.uic.edu/

Improving neighborhood access to healthy foods is a priority for public health departments across the country as part of an effort to give communities the resources needed to make positive changes in their eating behaviors that improve their overall health and lower obesity.  However, recent research suggests improving healthy food availability alone may not be sufficient to improve eating behaviors or reduce obesity risk. Further work is needed to understand how individual-environment interactions influence eating decisions. To meet this need, we developed the Chicago Healthy Eating Environments and Resources Study (CHEERS). Between September 2016 and October 2017, we collected data about eating behaviors and food availability in four neighborhoods in the city of Chicago to better understand how women aged 18-44 years use their environment, available resources, and each other to make eating decisions that influence overall health and obesity. We also measured height, weight, body composition and blood pressure, and collected dried blood spots. While distance to the nearest grocery store may be one factor that influences food choice, other factors such as price of groceries and placement or advertising of healthy vs. unhealthy food items may be even more important. In response, our research team members went to the neighborhood stores where participants report shopping to collect information about availability of foods, pricing and product placement within the stores.  We anticipate that CHEERS will represent the first step in a larger research agenda to enable Chicago families to make healthier eating decisions and reduce obesity and cardiovascular disease risk.