Spaces of obesity: Exploring clusters of childhood obesity, residential segregation, and food environment in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile

Abstract

In 2018, 50.9% of all Chilean children, measured by the "Nutritional Map" of the Ministry of Education, were categorized as overweight or obese, which is evidence of rising obesity rates in Latin America. Discussions on the subject revolve around the tension between agency-determining factors, such as eating and exercise habits, and structural ones, pointing to the correlations between high levels of obesity and poverty. However, there is also a territorial dimension that stands out, especially in cases with high levels of residential segregation, as is the case in many Latin American cities. Here there are potential clusters of more or less obesogenic food environments, where the socioeconomic level, the nutritional status of the sector, and the food supply of the place are correlated. In this article, the spatial dimensions of childhood obesity are mapped, arguing that the segregation of nutritional status overlaps with the nature of multidimensional inequalities in Chilean cities. The study was done by organizing and combining public databases and spatial analysis techniques to create diagnostic maps. The results show a trend towards higher obesity rates as the socioeconomic level of the neighborhood decreases, while food environments vary according to the availability of different combinations of supply (street markets, quantity and size of supermarkets, traditional channels) for each socioeconomic level, suggesting the presence of different types of food environments. The paper concludes with reflections on how the nutritional context has changed since the Covid-19 pandemic and opens a discussion on the role of urban planning in creating nutritional (in)equity conditions.