More Fastfood Outlets, More Type 2 Diabetes Cases: U.S. Study

Living near a fast-food restaurant may provide a quick fix if you're famished and pressed for time, but it may also boost your odds for Type 2 diabetes, a large study of US veterans suggests, Denise Mann reported for HealthDay News.

Photo Insert: Type 2 diabetes is the form of the disease most closely tied with obesity.

Neighborhoods with more supermarkets, however, may protect you against developing diabetes, especially in suburban and rural areas, the researchers said.

"The food availability choices in your environment really matter across the country and in a variety of different environments," said study co-author Lorna Thorpe. She is a professor of population health at New York University Langone Health in New York City.

For the study, Thorpe and her colleagues followed more than 4 million US military veterans without diabetes who lived in almost all parts of the United States for five-plus years.

The researchers tallied fast-food restaurants and supermarkets relative to other food outlets in four types of neighborhoods: high-density urban low-density urban suburban and rural, United Press International (UPI) also reported.

During the study, just over 13% of the veterans were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease most closely tied to obesity. The more fast-food restaurants the study participants had within walking distance of home, the greater their risk of developing diabetes in all four types of neighborhoods.

By contrast, those in suburban and rural areas who lived near supermarkets were less likely to develop diabetes during the study period, the findings showed.

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