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Lack of playgrounds, low rates of participation in organized sports may contribute to problem, researchers say

 

Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA -- Is your neighbourhood making your child fat? A new study suggests that children growing up in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods are more likely to be considered overweight or obese than those raised in higher- and middle-income areas.

"Obesity is very complex," Lisa Oliver, the study's main author, said in an interview. "It's not just about eating well and exercising, but how do the environments in which you live influence your ability to engage in physical activity or eating healthy?"

The study suggests that in the fight to reduce childhood obesity, policies should target those environmental influences.

"Residing in a disadvantaged neighbourhood may promote weight gain through access to a less healthy food supply, limited access to recreation facilities and increased safety concerns," the study notes. It did not go in depth however, to examine how exactly the wealth of neighbourhoods influences the weight of children.

"Other research that has been done has shown that in low-income neighbourhoods, parents are more likely to report a lack of safe parks and playgrounds," Oliver added. "And other research using the same data has shown that children in low-income neighbourhoods have a lower participation rate in organized sports. These other factors may be influencing body weight, but we didn't look at those in this study."

Published recently in the journal BMC Public Health, and on Monday by Statistics Canada, the study examined the effects of neighbourhood income on children's body mass index (BMI) over an eight-year period, from early childhood (ages two and three) to early adolescence (ages 10 and 11). BMI is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.

After controlling for individual factors like family income and education, the study found that living in the "most poor" neighbourhood was associated with an increasing BMI over time, compared to "middle" income and "least poor" neighbourhoods.

"At ages two and three we don't see much of a difference between neighbourhood income and children's body weight and by ages 10 and 11 we see quite a big difference," Oliver explained.

By early adolescence, 40 per cent of the children in the poorest neighbourhoods were overweight or obese, compared to 30 per cent in the middle-income neighbourhoods and 27 per cent in the richest neighbourhoods.

Because the gap between neighbourhoods widened as the children aged, Oliver concludes that neighbourhood characteristics may have a greater influence as children get older. In other words, the longer children are exposed to a poor neighbourhood the greater their chances of having a higher BMI. The results also showed that children in rural areas have higher BMIs than children in urban areas.

Oliver analysed data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, beginning in 1994 with children who were two or three years old. The parents of 2,152 children reported height and weight measurements every two years until 2002. The neighbourhood income data were derived from the 1996 census and were divided into categories from "most poor" to "least poor."

 

http://billyadrian.blogspot.com/2008/02/risk-of-obesity-rises-in-poorer.html