Spatial Technologies in Obesity Research: Current Applications and Future Promise

Peng Jia; Hong Xue; Li Yin; Alfred Stein; Minqi Wang; Youfa Wang

doi:10.1016/j.tem.2018.12.003

Spatial Technologies in Obesity Research: Current Applications and Future Promise

Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Mar;30(3):211-223. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2018.12.003. Epub 2019 Feb 1.

Authors

Peng Jia¹, Hong Xue², Li Yin³, Alfred Stein⁴, Minqi Wang⁵, Youfa Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth Observation Science, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, 7500, The Netherlands; International Initiative on Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology (ISLE), Enschede, 7500, The Netherlands. Electronic address: jiapengff@hotmail.com.
² Department of Health Behavior and Policy, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.
³ Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
⁴ Department of Earth Observation Science, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, 7500, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
⁶ Global Health Institute, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China. Electronic address: youfawang@gmail.com.

PMID: 30712979
DOI: 10.1016/j.tem.2018.12.003

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and remote sensing (RS) are revolutionizing obesity-related research. The primary applications of GIS have included visualizing obesity outcomes and risk factors, constructing obesogenic environmental indicators, and detecting geographical patterns of obesity prevalence and obesogenic environmental features. GPS was mainly used to delineate individual activity space and combined with other devices to measure obesogenic behaviors. RS has been understated for its role as important sources of data about natural and built environments. These spatial technologies, collectively called the 3S technologies, will be useful in measuring more facets of obesogenic environments and individual environmental exposure at finer levels and studying obesity etiology and interventions.

Keywords: GIS; GPS; Geographic information systems; Global positioning systems; Obesity; Obesogenic environment; Remote sensing; Spatial analysis.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Geographic Information Systems*
Humans
Obesity*
Risk Factors

Grants and funding

U54 HD070725/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States