Understanding gender and place-based differences in Caribbean health: connecting data and researchers for greater understanding of complex health inequalities

PI: Professor Karyn Morrissey

Funders: Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)

Malnutrition is a major contributor to the global rise in prevalence of overweight, obesity and related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes. This burden is attributed to a shift in the food environment and rapid rise in consumption of energy-dense, nutrient poor, processed foods. In the Caribbean region, women have much higher rates of diabetes than men. In order to promote the (re)design of healthy foodscapes, it is essential to explore the impact of local food environments on health, and whether responses to neighbourhood level exposures, that contribute to NCD outcomes, are different across gender and socio-economic groups.   

This project, funded by the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund, aims to explore the relationship between gender and fast food outlets on obesity and type 2 diabetes in Jamaica using a data driven approach informed by stakeholders in the region.   

The project has three interconnected phases. In Strand one, we will draw upon newly created and previously unused data on the geo-location of fast food outlets throughout Jamaica and the Jamaican Health and Lifestyle Survey III (JHLS III). We will apply a multilevel modelling analysis (MLM) to examine the role of gender and the local food environment on diabetes and obesity in Jamaica.  

The second Strand will focus on capacity building and disseminating the findings of the MLM to inform planning and design of healthy foodscapes. Using an online story map approach, we will host an interactive, cross-disciplinary webinar on gender, nutrition-related health and place, which will be affiliated with the Caribbean Public Health Association’s (CARPHA) annual conference in Kingston, Jamaica in June 2020.  

Finally, a stakeholder meeting will bring together interested academics, practitioners and policymakers from a variety of disciplines and fields, to discuss how epidemiological analysis can be used to inform planning and design. We use an online state of the art stakeholder mapping tool to visually map the stakeholders and their interests, which will be hosted on the Caribbean Foodscapes website: https://caribbeanfoodscapes.com/about/  

We will present an interactive story map that combines archival data, narratives and our MLM results. 

We bring together Jamaican epidemiological and ecological data with a focus on evidence-building for the design of healthy places. We will use the dissemination of our evidence as an opportunity for collaboration to contribute to building a gender and place-based network of nutrition research in the region.