Children in low-income districts more often overweight, study says.Ottawa -- The relationship between social-economic status and obesity have been documented. Now a study published recently in the Canadian Journal of Public Health puts it in a neighborhood context. Children living in lower income neighbourhoods are more often overweight Overweight Refers to an investment position that is larger than the generally accepted benchmark. Notes: For example, if a company normally holds a portfolio whose weighting of cash is 10%, and then increases cash holdings to 15%, the portfolio would have an overweight or obese o·bese adj. Extremely fat; very overweight. obese characterized by obesity. obese adjective Characterized by obesity, see there; excessively fat . This study is one of the first to examine the influence of neighbourhoods on a child's weight. One of the findings was that parents living in low income neighbourhoods were three times more likely than other parents to state that their neighbourhood parks were unsafe, suggesting that children in lower socio-economic neighbourhoods have fewer opportunities to be physically active. The study looked at the body mass index of 5 to 17 year-old children and the neighbourhoods in which they lived. The index is a measurement of obesity based on the relationship between a person's weight and height. Children are at a greater risk of being overweight or obese, if they live in neighbourhoods with * higher unemployment rates, * lower average family incomes, * fewer neighbours This article is about an Australian soap opera. For other articles with similar names, see Neighbours (disambiguation). Neighbours is a long-running Australian soap opera, which began its run in March 1985. with post-secondary education. The percentage of over-weight children ranged from 24% in areas with high socioeconomic status socioeconomic status, n the position of an individual on a socio-economic scale that measures such factors as education, income, type of occupation, place of residence, and in some populations, ethnicity and religion. to 35% in low income neighbourhoods. The article reports that fewer children in low socio-economic neighbourhoods tended to participate in organized physical activities than children in higher socio-economic neighbourhoods. The analysis was conducted in the British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography Inter-university Research Data Centre at the Univorsity of British Columbia and was based on 2000/01 National Longitudinal lon·gi·tu·di·nal adj. Running in the direction of the long axis of the body or any of its parts. Survey of Children and Youth and 2001 Census profile. "Neighbourhood socio-economic status and the prevalence of overweight Canadian children and youth" is in the November-December 2005 issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. (cjph@cpha.ca) |
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