title: Place matters: Mitigating obesity with the person-in-environment approach.
abstract: Research demonstrates that environmental and community-level variables contribute to obesity. Many of these variables are outside of personal volitional control, such as the characteristics of the places in which people live. Social work's unique person-in-environment (PIE) approach is an ideal perspective from which to address obesity. This study employs the PIE perspective to examine sprawl, one environmental-level factor. We employed secondary data analysis to examine the effect of sprawl on obesity while controlling for covariates. Region of residence and sprawl significantly predicted obesity, net of covariates. Given that obesity varies among communities, social workers can respond with PIE-oriented solutions.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Social Work , University of West Florida , Pensacola , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Kellie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Dare Wilson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012947:Social Work / Q000379:methods; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Obesity; obesity and place; overweight; person-in-environment; sprawl