Living in neighborhood with higher walkability may lower obesity and related cancer risk

According to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, women reciding in neighbourhoods with higher walkability have a lower risk of obesity-related cancers, particularly postmenopausal breast cancer. Researchers in this study also found Moderate associations for endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, and multiple myeloma.

More data on the relation between neighbourhood walkability and risk for obesity-related cancer must be collected.

A prospective cohort, New York University Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS), recruited 14,274 women (1985-1991 in New York City who were followed up for three decades. They geocoded addresses, calculated walkability, used ICD-9 codes for primary obesity-related cancer, and employed Cox proportion hazard models to assess the association between average neighbourhood walkability and overall and site-specific obesity-related cancer risk.

Key insights from this study are:

• Residing in neighbourhoods with a higher walkability level reduced the risk of overall and site-specific obesity-related cancers.
• Following adjustment with confounders, hazard ratios associated with a 1-standard deviation increase in average annual neighbourhood walkability were 0.88, 0.89, 0.82, 0.87 and 0.68 for overall obesity-related cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and multiple myeloma respectively.
• The association was stronger among women living in neighbourhoods with higher poverty levels.

They said, “Our study highlights a potential protective role of neighbourhood walkability in preventing obesity-related cancers in women.”

Study limitations include nondifferential measurement errors, inaccuracies, measurement errors, and small sample sizes for specific cancers.

Study strengths include detailed data collection, control for potential confounders, and inclusion of overall obesity-related and site-specific cancers as outcomes.

Our study followed up on the effects of walkability, allowing us to study cancer's long-term impact. They said the findings could help support policies that target the built environment to reduce obesity-related cancer risk in older women.

Reference:

Lorna E. Thorpe. Long-Term Exposure to Walkable Residential Neighborhoods and Risk of Obesity-Related Cancer in the New York University Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS) Environmental Health Perspectives. Vol. 131, No. 10