Proefschrift Paul Meijer

Where the heart is: The impact of the neighbourhood built environment on cardiovascular health

Samenvatting

This PhD thesis explores how neighbourhood built environments impact cardiometabolic health, CVD outcomes, and mortality. Tailored indices were instrumental in defining and analysing the food environment, neighbourhood walkability, and obesogenic environments, uncovering significant associations with cardiovascular outcomes in large-scale studies. Unhealthier food environments were linked to obesity-related mortality, particularly from cardiometabolic causes (Chapter 3.2); low and increasing walkability was associated with long-term CVD incidence (Chapter 4); and obesogenic environments were connected to the prevalence of clinical CVD risk factors (Chapters 5.1 and 5.2) as well as long-term CVD incidence and mortality (Chapter 5.3).