Lower Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Contributes to Obesity in African-American Women

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine’s Slone Epidemiology Center have found that African-American women who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods have greater weight gain and are more likely to develop obesity than African-American women of the same educational levels who live in more affluent neighborhoods. Thus, neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) may contribute to the black-white disparity in obesity, given that far more black women, including those who are well educated, live in disadvantaged neighborhoods than do white women.

The study, based on data from the Black Women’s Health Study and recently published on-line in Obesity, is the first large-scale prospective study of the influence of neighborhood socioeconomic status on weight gain among African-American women. According to the researchers both weight gain and incidence of obesity were inversely associated with neighborhood SES, above and beyond the effects of individual SES and of behavioral factors such as physical activity and caloric intake.

“The associations were most apparent among the most educated women,” said lead author Patricia Coogan, ScD, an associate professor of epidemiology, BUSPH. “Women with lower levels of education may already have less favorable health behaviors (e.g., poor diet, sedentary) and therefore neighborhood characteristics may have little additional effect,” she added.