Neighborhood effects on body mass: Temporal and spatial dimensions

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Obesity research often overlooks life-course exposure and the influence of proximate communities.
• Neighborhood characteristics are known determinants of health, including obesity and body weight.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between cumulative exposure to neighborhood poverty and co-ethnic density, and extralocal neighborhood conditions with body mass index (BMI).
• To examine these associations across different racial/ethnic groups (Black, Hispanic, White) over time.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 9357 respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort.
• Integrated tract-level census data (1980-2010) to assess neighborhood characteristics.
• Employed fixed-effect regression models to analyze the relationship between neighborhood exposures and BMI.

Main Results:

• Cumulative exposure to co-ethnic neighbors positively predicted BMI more strongly than immediate neighborhood density for Hispanics and whites.
• Cumulative neighborhood poverty exposure was a stronger BMI predictor than current poverty for whites.
• Extralocal neighborhood poverty was inversely related to BMI for Black and white individuals, suggesting relative deprivation effects.

Conclusions:

• Both temporal (life-course) and spatial (extralocal) dimensions of neighborhood context are critical for understanding obesity.
• Future research should integrate these nuanced neighborhood effects to better explain health disparities.