While the causes of obesity have been widely discussed from various perspectives, studies that examine how the physical form of a neighborhood could causally affect obesity remain limited. This study combined individual-level longitudinal data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey and subdistrict-level land cover data to investigate whether a neighborhood’s physical form affects individuals’ obesity status. We controlled for individual and location fixed-effect to account for individuals’ sorting preferences and unobserved heterogeneity at the subdistrict level. Our results suggest that a sprawling neighborhood corresponds to a lower body mass index, particularly among males. We also show that consumption behavior can explain this mechanism.

尽管人们从不同的角度广泛讨论了肥胖的原因，但研究社区的物理形态如何因果影响肥胖的研究仍然有限。这项研究结合了印度尼西亚家庭生活调查的个人层面纵向数据和分区层面的土地覆盖数据，以调查社区的身体形态是否影响个人的肥胖状况。我们控制了个人和位置固定效应，以考虑个人的排序偏好和分区层面未观察到的异质性。我们的研究结果表明，一个庞大的社区对应着较低的体重指数，尤其是对于男性而言。我们还表明消费行为可以解释这种机制。