About this Research Topic
Although the genetic determinants of obesity are well understood, their respective effect as well as systemic interactions on body weight regulation remain poorly understood. Moreover, the pathways predicting ORCDs between sociodemographic indirect determinants (age, sex, education, urban lifetime duration, etc.) and socio-ecological direct determinants (dietary intake and physical activity) are also rarely explored to study the etiology of ORCDs. Yet, both respective and cumulative contributions of these drivers, as well as the multiple driver pathways leading to ORCDs, must be explored to explain the difference in the prevalence and incidence of ORCDs between countries, and better identify at-risk subgroups toward this rising burden.
Accordingly, the aim of this Research Topic consists of refocusing the study of obesity at an anthropological scale, by considering holistically populations’ characteristics (sociodemographic and socio-ecological) that influence their degree of adaptation to obesogenic urban environments, to provide new insights to develop anthropologically relevant targeted programs to prevent and treat obesity and ORCDs.
All qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches will be considered by our editorial board to address the main questions of this interdisciplinary Research Topic at the frontier between anthropology and public health.
Keywords: Nutrition Transition, Obesity-Related Metabolic Diseases, Sociodemographic and Socio-ecological Determinants, Urbanization, Obesogenic Environments, Anthropology
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