title: Psychosocial environment: definitions, measures and associations with weight status--a systematic review.
abstract: Socio-ecological models suggest that many elements of the social environment act as upstream determinants of obesity. This systematic review examined definitions, measures and strength of associations between the psychosocial environment and adult weight status. Studies were included if they were conducted on adults, the outcome was weight status, carried out in any developed country and investigated at least one psychosocial environmental construct. Six databases for primary studies were searched: EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. We restricted our search to studies published in English between January 1995 and February 2015. An adapted 'Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies' was used to evaluate risk of bias of included studies. Out of 14,784 screened records, 42 articles were assessed using full text. A total of 19 studies were included. The strongest associations with weight status were found for social capital and collective efficacy, although few studies found significant associations. There was heterogeneity in the definitions and metrics of psychosocial environmental constructs. There is limited evidence that greater social capital and collective efficacy are associated with healthier weight status. The research conducted to date has not robustly identified relations. We highlight challenges to undertaking research and establishing causality in this field and provide recommendations for further research.
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 Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mackenbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Service Planning and Care Integration, Sengkang Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lakerveld
authors.affiliation: Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris 13, 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
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bárdos
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: 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
mesh_terms: D001835:Body Weight; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004779:Environment Design; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Obesity; SPOTLIGHT; psychosocial environment; social capital