Obesogenicity perception of food environments in adults: A cross-sectional study in urban areas of Santiago, Chile.

Abstract

Introduction: In Chile, there is a high prevalence of obesity, and most people have an inadequate quality of food. Food environments can constitute barriers that prevent healthy food choices and lead to overweight and obesity, as well as diet-related non-communicable diseases. There are international instruments that allow the characterization of food environments. In Chile, there are no studies on the perception of food environments. This study aimed to characterize the perception of obesogenicity of food environments in the urban Chilean population using an instrument previously validated in Chile.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with probabilistic sampling. The "Perceived Nutrition Environment Measures Survey", based on the Chilean model of food environments, was applied to 256 participants from two urban communities of the Metropolitan Region. Scores were calculated for the instrument items, which allowed calculating scores by environments included in the Chilean model of Food Environments. Negative scores were related to a higher obesogenic level.

Results: The results show that the domestic food environment is perceived as less obesogenic (median of 15.8 points), with more than 90% of households having fruits, vegetables, and legumes, even though the supply food environment was negative (median -0.19 points). However, about 50% of households had ultra-processed foods. The street food environment was perceived as the most obesogenic (median -1.91 points), with more than 60% of the participants indicating difficulty finding healthy options.

Conclusions: According to the level of obesogenicity of the environments studied, it is necessary to have public policies that improve them and ensure the availability and physical and economic access to healthy food, particularly in the food supply and public road environments.