Community-level determinants of obesity: harnessing the power of electronic health records for retrospective data analysis

摘要

BackgroundObesity and overweight are multifactorial diseases that affect two thirds of Americans, lead to numerous health conditions and deeply strain our healthcare system. With the increasing prevalence and dangers associated with higher body weight, there is great impetus to focus on public health strategies to prevent or curb the disease. Electronic health records (EHRs) are a powerful source for retrospective health data, but they lack important community-level information known to be associated with obesity. We explored linking EHR and community data to study factors associated with overweight and obesity in a systematic and rigorous way.