Investigating the link between impulsivity and obesity through urban scaling laws

Abstract

Impulsivity has been proposed as a key driver of obesity. However, evidence linking impulsivity and obesity has relied on the study of individual factors, with limited account for the urban attributes of obesogenic environments. Here, we investigate the relationship between obesity and impulsivity through urban scaling and causal discovery. For 915 cities in the United States of America, we study the prevalence of obesity in adults, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, and relevant urban features. We observe sublinear scaling of obesity and ADHD with population size, these disorders being less prevalent in larger cities. By applying a causal discovery tool to the deviations of cities from the urban scaling laws, we identify an influence of ADHD on obesity, moderated by lifestyle. The strength of these associations is confirmed by individual-level data on a cohort of 19,333 children, wherein we observe that ADHD modulates obesity both directly and indirectly.