Rebecca Oh and Alexa Zmich

Rising obesity rates in the United States have become a large concern, as obesity is now the leading preventable cause of death worldwide and is associated with many other causes of death. The dietary choices we make every day affect the potential of developing obesity, including the types of food establishments we choose to eat at. Thus, we are interested in seeing the possible effect these food establishments can have on our health, leading to our research question: “Do the main cuisines of food establishments affect obesity rates within Michigan?” In our study, we additionally seek to delve further into this question by analyzing geographic location (by county), which may also be impacting the obesity rates.

Prior research for obesity is heavily focused on fast food restaurants specifically. Studies have found that the location of fast food reference, in regards to both quantity and closeness to heavily frequented buildings (i.e. schools), can have a significant effect on the obesity rates in the area (Jeffery et al. 2006; Davis and Carpenter 2011). The significance found on location greatly influenced our decision to include a location focus along with our research question, to see if results would be different for non-fast-food restaurants. Currie et al. (2010) separated fast food restaurants from non-fast-food restaurants and found there to be a lack of correlation between non-fast-food restaurants and obesity, however, the study focused primarily on the fast food restaurants and did not further break down the non-fast-food-restaurants due to the initial lack of correlation. Our research question will continue research into a much needed focus on non-fast-food-restaurants, especially as Yelp tends to lack full inclusion of area fast food restaurants.

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