Abstract
There is increasing interest in the effect that food environments may have on obesity, particularly through mechanisms related to the marketing and consumption of calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods and sugary beverages. Price promotions, such as temporary price discounts, have been particularly effective in the marketing of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) among consumers. Research has also suggested that the purchasing behavior of consumer groups may be differentially sensitive to price discounts on CSDs, with obese women particularly sensitive. In addition, the intensity of price discount in a person’s food environment may also vary across geography and over time. This study examines whether the weight change of obese women, compared to overweight or normal BMI women, is more sensitive to the intensity of price discounts on CSDs in the food environment. This study used longitudinal survey data from 1622 women in the Montreal Neighborhood Networks and Health Aging (MoNNET-HA) Panel. Women were asked to report their height and weight in 2008, 2010 and 2013 in order to calculate women’s BMI in 2008 and their change of weight between 2008 and 2013. Women’s exposure to an unhealthy food environment was based on the frequency in which their neighborhood food stores placed price discounts on CSDs in 2008. The price discount frequency on CSDs within women’s neighborhoods was calculated from Nielsen point-of sales transaction data in 2008 and geocoded to participant’s forward sortation area. The prevalence of obesity and overweight among MoNNET-HA female participants was 18.3% in 2008, 19.9% in 2010 and 20.7% in 2013 respectively. Results showed that among obese women, exposure to unhealthy food environments was associated with a 3.25 kilogram (SE = 1.35, p-value = 0.02) weight gain over the five-year study period. Exposure to price discounts on CSDs may disproportionately affect and reinforce weight gain in women who are already obese.
Highlights
Obesity has been identified as a serious public health problem and has been described as a global pandemic [1]
This study examines whether the weight change of obese women, compared to overweight or normal body mass index (BMI) women, is more sensitive to the intensity of price discounts on carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) in the food environment
Results showed that neighborhood exposure to price discounts was not directly associated with changes in women’s weight over the same period (β = -0.84, SE = 0.97, P = 0.39)
Summary
Obesity has been identified as a serious public health problem and has been described as a global pandemic [1]. There has been an increased interest in the association between food environments and obesity [2, 3]. Within food environments, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), especially sugary beverages, represent a major source of caloric intake. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption has risen substantially in the past 30 years [4, 5], contributing the largest portion to the caloric intake of national diets [6,7,8]. SSBs have been associated with weight gain and increased risk of developing obesity among children [5, 9, 10] and adults [9, 11]. Potential explanations for the association among SSBs, increased energy intake, and greater body weight include the added-sugar content, and lower satiety of liquid calories [12]
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