Weight issues often connected to the neighborhood

When Jennifer Black worked as a nutritionist in low-income Manhattan neighborhoods, she noticed a problem.

"Their neighborhoods lacked convenient access to amenities like grocery stores that sold healthy food at affordable prices, and opportunities to be physically active," said Black, a former doctoral candidate at NYU.

She found that her patients often struggled with weight-related health issues, like diabetes. Her new study shows that lower income neighborhoods in New York City have higher obesity rates than more affluent ones.

Working with her dissertation adviser, James Macinko, an associate professor of public health and health policy at NYU, Black documented that obesity rates have continued to rise in New York City from 2003-07. These rates also differ among gender and socioeconomic class.

"We were surprised to find that obesity rates rose significantly for women but not for men, particularly since national findings from the NHANES survey during a similar time period found the opposite," Black said.

Black and Macinko found that those of lower socioeconomic classes are more at risk because of their financial situation and their lack of exposure to fitness centers and healthy grocery stores.
The study found a link between neighborhood and general health. This means that even if someone of good health is living in a neighborhood where there are additional obesity risk factors, they have a higher risk for obesity.

Black thinks steps can be taken to address the issue.

"We need to find better ways to measure and track health data and neighborhood characteristics within cities to learn what kinds of community-interventions are effective and where the needs are greatest," Black said.

Macinko agrees and said their research showed that interventions need to occur on both the individual level and the neighborhood level.

"Because the neighborhood level factors that raise the risk of obesity are different in different settings, you can't just have a one-size-fits-all policy in terms of reducing obesity in New York City," Macinko said.