Children in Poor Neighborhoods More Likely to be Obese, Study Says
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Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A new study indicates that children in poor neighborhoods are more likely to be obese than children in middle-class or wealthy neighborhoods, Health Day reports.
Researchers compared over 17,500 5-year-old children in roughly 4,700 neighborhoods across the United States. Children in middle-class areas were shown to have a 17 percent greater risk of obesity than children in wealthy areas, while children in poor areas had a 28 percent greater risk. Study authors also found that children in neighborhoods with a high percentage of foreign-born residents had a 20 percent reduced risk of obesity, while obesity risk was higher among children in neighborhoods with lower education levels, according to Health Day.
The findings of the study were released online and will later be published in the Social Science & Medicine journal.
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