A Longitudinal Analysis of Neighborhood Food Environment and Diabetes Risk in the Department of Veterans Affairs Diabetes Risk Cohort

Kanchi R, Lopez P, Rummo PE, et al. Longitudinal analysis of neighborhood food environment and diabetes risk in the Department of Veterans Affairs diabetes risk cohort. JAMA Network Open. 2021; 4(10): e2130789. doi: 10.1001 / jamanetworkopen. 2021.30789

Commentary

This study was investigating the association between neighborhood food environments and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes across different community types (high-density urban, low-density urban, suburban, and rural).

This is a national cohort study of 10,0650 US veterans without type 2 diabetes.

They joined the cohort between 2008 and 2016 and were followed up through 2018. The median (IQR) follow-up period was 5.5 (2.6-9.8) persons/year.

Results showed that there was a positive association with a slightly increased risk of type 2 diabetes in all community types for the relative density of fast food restaurants. The adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) were 1.01 (95% CI, 1.00-1.02) for high-density urban communities, 1.01 (95% CI, 1.01-1.01) for low-density urban communities, 1.02 (95% CI, 1.01-)

1.03 in suburban communities and 1.01 in rural communities (95% CI, 1.01-1.02).

Relative density of supermarkets was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes only in suburban (aHR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.99) and rural (aHR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-0.99) communities.