Overweight Children: Assessing the Contribution of the Neighborhood Environment

Irina Grafova, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Using the 2002/2003 wave of Child Development Supplement (CDS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this paper examines the effect of the neighborhood environment on the prevalence of overweight and at risk of overweight status in children. We consider a variety of neighborhood environment features, such as anonymity, informal social control, safety, and the physical environment. Preliminary results suggest that neither neighborhood anonymity nor informal social control in the neighborhood nor neighborhood safety affect the risk of being overweight for children of either gender. However, living in a low or medium physical condition neighborhood is associated with a 69-92 percent increase in the odds of being overweight relative to living in a high physical condition neighborhood. Moreover, physical condition of the neighborhood has greater effect on girls. The results of this study emphasize a particular importance of the built environment of the neighborhood for weight status of children.