Thinking of moving to the ghetto to save on rent? For the sake of your health - think again.
New research reveals that living and growing up in low-income neighborhoods significantly raises the risk of obesity. The findings were especially true for young women.
The latest study, conducted at the University of Colorado-Denver, found that people who were raised in poor areas were significantly more likely to become obese compared to those who live in richer neighborhoods. Obesity risks also go up if people continued living in poor neighborhoods.
Lead researcher Adam Lippert, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado, and his team analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health participants, involving 12,164 students from grades seven through 12. All participants were followed for a period of 13 years.
The findings revealed that the risk of obesity decreased when teens moved out of low-income neighborhoods. The risk of obesity increased whenever teens moved into low-income neighborhoods. However, those who consistently lived in poor areas were most at risk of becoming or remaining obese in adulthood.
"Those who consistently live in poor neighborhoods are more likely to become or remain obese by adulthood than those who never live in poor neighborhoods. Exiting severe neighborhood poverty curtails this risk, while entering and remaining in neighborhood poverty in adulthood increases it," researchers wrote in the study. "These patterns are more pronounced for young women and robust to adjustments for health behaviors and selection bias."
Researchers said the latest findings are important because it highlights the negative outcomes of income and residential inequalities in the United States.
Study results "support accumulation of risks and social mobility perspectives and highlight how previous and current neighborhood contexts are relevant for health," wrote Lippert and his team.
Researchers believe the higher obesity risk associated with living in low-income areas can be explained by the lack of healthy food options and exercise amenities as well as higher levels of stress in poor neighborhoods. Lippert said the findings suggest that helping teens living in low-income neighborhoods improve their residential circumstances can substantially improve their life and health in adulthood.
"The research demonstrates that the long-term residential experiences of teenagers can affect their life-long health," Lippert said in a university release. "It's encouraging to see that the risk of obesity can be curtailed by moving out of a low-income areas."
The findings are published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
