Socio-Economic and Environmental Factors Involved in Overweight and Obesity; A review Study

Obesity is a globall major public health problem, which has negative implications for health and imposes economic burden on society. Various individual and social factors are involved in developing obesity, which without considering them, the obesity prevention and treatment strategies will not be succeed. The results of different studies show that there are different effects of socioeconomic status on overweight and obesity in developed and developing countries. This means that, there is an inverse association between obesity and socioeconomic status in developed countries, while a certain pattern is not observed in developing countries. Also, the neighborhood characteristics, including access to supermarkets, restaurants, as well as green space, sports facilities, transportation, traffic and perceived social environments, can be effective in developing obesity and overweight. It is concluded that, identification of environmental factors causing obesity, will help policy makers for adopting and implementing successful obesity fighting rules