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dc.contributor.authorDuncan, Dustin T.en_US
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Renee M.en_US
dc.contributor.authorMolnar, Beth E.en_US
dc.contributor.authorAzrael, Deborahen_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-01-12T16:49:17Z
dc.date.available2012-01-12T16:49:17Z
dc.date.copyright2009
dc.date.issued2009-8-11
dc.identifier.citationDuncan, Dustin T, Renee M Johnson, Beth E Molnar, Deborah Azrael. "Association between neighborhood safety and overweight status among urban adolescents" BMC Public Health 9:289. (2009)
dc.identifier.issn1471-2458
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2144/3380
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND. Neighborhood safety may be an important social environmental determinant of overweight. We examined the relationship between perceived neighborhood safety and overweight status, and assessed the validity of reported neighborhood safety among a representative community sample of urban adolescents (who were racially and ethnically diverse). METHODS. Data come from the 2006 Boston Youth Survey, a cross-sectional study in which public high school students in Boston, MA completed a pencil-and-paper survey. The study used a two-stage, stratified sampling design whereby schools and then 9th–12th grade classrooms within schools were selected (the analytic sample included 1,140 students). Students reported their perceptions of neighborhood safety and several associated dimensions. With self-reported height and weight data, we computed body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) for the adolescents based on CDC growth charts. Chi-square statistics and corresponding p-values were computed to compare perceived neighborhood safety by the several associated dimensions. Prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to examine the association between perceived neighborhood safety and the prevalence of overweight status controlling for relevant covariates and school site. RESULTS. More than one-third (35.6%) of students said they always felt safe in their neighborhood, 43.9% said they sometimes felt safe, 11.6% rarely felt safe, and 8.9% never felt safe. Those students who reported that they rarely or never feel safe in their neighborhoods were more likely than those who said they always or sometimes feel safe to believe that gang violence was a serious problem in their neighborhood or school (68.0% vs. 44.1%, p < 0.001), and to have seen someone in their neighborhood assaulted with a weapon (other than a firearm) in the past 12 months (17.8% vs. 11.3%, p = 0.025). In the fully adjusted model (including grade and school) stratified by race/ethnicity, we found a statistically significant association between feeling unsafe in one's own neighborhood and overweight status among those in the Other race/ethnicity group [(PR = 1.56, (95% CI: 1.02, 2.40)]. CONCLUSION. Data suggest that perception of neighborhood safety may be associated with overweight status among urban adolescents in certain racial/ethnic groups. Policies and programs to address neighborhood safety may also be preventive for adolescent overweight.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Institute of General Medical Sciences (5R25GM055353-10); National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (IP20MD002290); Center for Disease Control and Prevention (U49CE00740)en_US
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBioMed Centralen_US
dc.rightsCopyright 2009 Duncan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
dc.titleAssociation between Neighborhood Safety and Overweight Status among Urban Adolescentsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/1471-2458-9-289
dc.identifier.pmid19671180
dc.identifier.pmcid2734852


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Copyright 2009 Duncan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright 2009 Duncan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.