How residential neighbourhood can impact cardio-metabolic health

The MET’HOOD project explores the relationship between Luxembourg neighborhoods and cardio-metabolic health of its residents.

Cardio-metabolic diseases are the leading causes of premature death worldwide and a major contributor to health disparities. Risk factors leading to a cardio-metabolic disease include overweight, obesity, high blood pressure or high blood sugar – factors which are often accumulated together, leading to the so-called metabolic syndrome. In Western countries, metabolic syndrome is a burgeoning public health issue affecting between 20% and 30% of the population. Better-known key influencers are primarily related to lifestyle and daily habits. Interestingly, however, a person’s geographical environment has emerged as a potential significant determinant of cardio-metabolic health. Yet, so far the environmental causes of the metabolic syndrome remain poorly understood.

Launched in 2021, MET’HOOD (Time-variant residential neighborhood effects on cardio-metabolic health) is a research project supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (C20/BM/14787166). The project, conducted jointly by the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) explores how change in the built, natural and socio-economic characteristics of residential neighborhoods over 10 years in Luxembourg is associated with the metabolic syndrome and behavioral cardio-metabolic risk factors such as diet and physical activity.

In Luxembourg, cardiovascular health was ranked as a top priority for the country’s healthcare decision-makers, promoting the initiation of a national prevention plan in 2018. This project provides an unprecedented opportunity to analyses the long-term, ten-year effects of the geographical environments on cardio-metabolic health on a national scale in Luxembourg. Focusing on social disparities in cardio-metabolic profiles, MET'HOOD investigated how social inequalities in access to so-called 'healthy' urban resources are transformed over time into social inequalities in cardio-metabolic health.

To learn more about MET’HOOD, make sure to discover the videos below.

Video interview (in French) of joint LISER and LIH researcher Marion Tharrey. She presents the MET’HOOD project and why it is important to study ‘green spaces’ in relation to cardio-metabolic health.

Presentation of MET’HOOD