BALTIMORE, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Older adults living in disadvantaged U.S. urban neighborhoods have an increased risk of obesity, found researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
"There is almost a twofold higher chance that you're going to be obese if you live in the worst neighborhoods," said epidemiologist and lead author Thomas Glass of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Moreover, the risk is not something that can be explained away by personal variables such as dietary intake, tobacco use and household wealth."
The authors said the findings may be due to fear caused by living in areas characterized by crime, disorder and neglect.
The researchers found that while the overall obesity level for adults ages 50 to 70 was 38 percent, it ranged from a low of 27 percent in the least hazardous neighborhoods to a high of 53 percent in the most hazardous neighborhoods.
The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
