Is high-rise development always beneficial to health?

Previous academic literature attributes mixed–use development along with an increased number of skyscrapers as a preferred condition with several positive externalities. Objectives: to demonstrate that mixed-use development is not always beneficial to health – proxied by the prevalence of obesity. We investigate the impact of high-rise buildings on the prevalence of obesity in the US during 2011–2020 using a quadratic regression model. This specification accounts for non-monotonic variation with the independent variable. Findings indeed demonstrate that concentration of above 147 skyscrapers in a state is detrimental with regards to the projected prevalence of obesity.