NIHR – Global Health Research Group on Diet and Activity –A syndemic approach to the prevention of diet-and physical activity-related NCDs

The global diet and activity research (GDAR) Network addresses the rising non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and is focused on built and food environment determinants of diet and physical activity (PA). The first stage of GDAR work ran from 2017-2021, laying the foundations for a well-functioning Network, and innovative research in urban settings of LMICs. The second stage of GDAR work is called GDAR Spaces (2021-2025) which proposes a syndemic approach to address built and food environment vulnerabilities due to urbanisation and climate change hazards to equitably and sustainably support and enhance healthy diets and PA. GDARSpaces, as with GDAR, also aims for transdisciplinary and co-creation methods in researching environmental upstream determinants of diet and PA behaviours in the context of socio-economic inequality.GDAR Spaces research network is in seven LMIC cities in the Caribbean (Kingston, Jamaica), Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa; Kisumu, Kenya; Yaoundé, Cameroon; Lagos, Nigeria) and South America (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). The overarching research question of the GDAR Spaces programme is: How can a better understanding of urbanisation and climate-change (syndemic)-related NCD hazards inform the design of resilient built and food environment interventions to support healthy diets and active living in LMIC cities.