What does my neighbourhood have to do with my weight? A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic status and body weight.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals living in poor neighbourhoods are at a higher risk of overweight/obesity. There is no systematic review and meta-analysis study on the association of neighbourhood socioeconomic status (NSES) with overweight/obesity. We aimed to systematically review and meta-analyse the existing evidence on the association of NSES with overweight/obesity.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies published in English from inception to 15 May 2017 will be systematically searched using the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Sciences and Google Scholar. Selection, screening, reviewing and data extraction will be done by two reviewers, independently and in duplicate. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) will be used to assess the quality of evidence. Publication bias will be checked by visual inspection of funnel plots and Egger's regression test. Heterogeneity will be checked by Higgins's method (I2 statistics). Meta-analysis will be done to estimate the pooled OR. Narrative synthesis will be performed if meta-analysis is not feasible due to high heterogeneity of studies.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical clearance is not required as we will be using data from published articles. Findings will be communicated through a publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presentations at professional conferences.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017063889.