Obesogenic Environment in a Minas Gerais State Metropolis, Brazil: Analysis of Crime Rates, Food Shops and Physical Activity Venues

The aim of the present study is to identify obesogenic environment profiles to find the obesogenic environment pattern for Belo Horizonte City. The current research followed the ecological approach and was substantiated by data from food shops, public sports venues, crime rates (homicides and robberies) and the rate of accidents with pedestrians. Descriptive analyses and principal component analysis (PCA) were conducted in Stata software, version 14.0. Georeferencing and map plotting were carried out in Qgis software, version 2.10. All neighborhoods in Belo Horizonte City (n = 486) were included in the study. The obesogenic pattern comprised the highest mean number of shops selling ultra-processed food, crime rates, and accidents with pedestrians. The generated latent variable was divided into tertiles, and the second and third tertiles represented the most obesogenic environments. Neighborhoods accounting for the highest obesogenic profile also recorded the largest number of shops selling all food types. Furthermore, neighborhoods in the third tertile recorded the highest mean income (BRL 2352.00) (p = 0.001) and the lowest Health Vulnerability Index (HVI = 54.2; p = 0.001). These findings point towards the need for developing actions, policies and programs to improve these environments, such as tax incentives to open healthy food retailers and public sports venues to promote healthier lifestyles and to prevent diseases in the middle and long term.