Introduction

I am creating this blog to explore some of the social determinants of health as they relate to the rising rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension (metabolic syndrome), both locally and internationally. I am primarily going to focus on obesogenic environments, which is again a broad term that takes into account both macro and micro perspective of the environment. According to CE Joshu et. al, macro-environments include those factors that impact risk for obesity for populations, and includes things like land use patterns along with physical, social, cultural, economic and environmental factors. Meanwhile micro-environments describe the risk of obesity for individuals and takes into account biological and genetic considerations, along with individual access to physical activity space and dietary foods.

Although I will describe the obesogenic environment as it impacts the populations, and some of the things that are causing the epidemic of obesity and associated diseases, I will bring it back providing relevant and practical examples of how our personal environment fits within this picture.

It is also part of my Community Health Assignment. I chose to do the assignment in this format to attempt to make the information relating to this topic more accessible to my peers and interested people. In addition, this format allows me to combine information about the factors contributing to the dramatic rise in obesity and associated diseases that I find in academia with information from primary sources including newspapers, other social media, and things I see in my own environment.