Children and young adults living in poor neighborhoods are more likely to become or remain obesity later in life, says a new study from the University of Colorado Denver.
Plus, the length of time that young people spend in low-income neighborhoods is associated with obesity, say researchers, and the pattern is more pronounced for young women.
The report interested us because of a story we did last June as part of our Childhood Poverty reporting:
Colorado is one of the country’s leanest, most physically active states for adults. But when it comes to kids, it's a different story: about a fifth of them are overweight or obese. The figure for poor children is closer to a third, and even higher for blacks, Hispanics and the uninsured, according to the Colorado Child Health Survey.
When teens move out of poor neighborhoods, the risk of obesity goes down, according the the new CU Denver research. Conversely, moving into a poor neighborhood increases the risk.
