Table 2.

Epidemiologic cascade in urban setting

Level	Explanatory variables	Units of analysis	Explained variables
1	Opportunities for growth and for financial gains	Corporations (developers, and financial institutions)	Projects for investments or disinvestments in urban areas
2	Projects for investments or disinvestments in urban areas	Government	Approval/modification of project
At that point, the involved areas are on their way to growth or decay and the next steps will involve different corporate pressures for (a) growth areas and (b) decay areas
3	Final investment/ disinvestment decisions	Corporations (real estate, food, alcohol, tobacco, cars,)	Decisions for promoting outlets in the areas
4	Decisions for promoting and setting up outlets in the area	Conduits	Pressures on the local environment
5	Pressures on the local environment	Local environment retailers	Modified sales environment
6.	Modified sales environment; host factors; environmental factors	Hosts	Consumption of products
7	Consumption of products	Hosts	Disease outcome
	Host factors
	Environmental factors