title: Self-defined residential neighbourhoods: size variations and correlates across five European urban regions.
abstract: The neighbourhood is recognized as an important unit of analysis in research on the relation between obesogenic environments and development of obesity. One important challenge is to define the limits of the residential neighbourhood, as perceived by study participants themselves, in order to improve our understanding of the interaction between contextual features and patterns of obesity. An innovative tool was developed in the framework of the SPOTLIGHT project to identify the boundaries of neighbourhoods as defined by participants in five European urban regions. The aims of this study were (i) to describe self-defined neighbourhood (size and overlap with predefined residential area) according to the characteristics of the sampling administrative neighbourhoods (residential density and socioeconomic status) within the five study regions and (ii) to determine which individual or/and environmental factors are associated with variations in size of self-defined neighbourhoods. Self-defined neighbourhood size varies according to both individual factors (age, educational level, length of residence and attachment to neighbourhood) and contextual factors. These findings have consequences for how residential neighbourhoods are defined and operationalized and can inform how self-defined neighbourhoods may be used in research on associations between contextual characteristics and health outcomes such as obesity.
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Université Paris 13, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, France.|Paris Est University, Lab-Urba, UPEC, Urban School of Paris, Créteil, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Charreire
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Université Paris 13, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, France.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feuillet
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Université Paris 13, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roda
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mackenbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Compernolle
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Glonti
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Hungary.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bárdos
authors.affiliation: CERMES3, UMR 8211-U988, CNRS, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes, EHESS, Villejuif, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Le Vaillant
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rutter
authors.affiliation: ECOHOST - The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Bourdeaudhuij
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brug
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lakerveld
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Université Paris 13, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, France.|Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris 06; Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, Department of Nutrition Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France.
authors.forename: J-M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Oppert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D009765:Obesity; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: Multilevel; SPOTLIGHT; overlap; self-defined neighbourhoods