The Correlation of Neighborhood Safety and Behaviors upon Pediatric Obesity in an Urban Population - Abstract
Background: Neighborhood safety and certain behaviors – namely doing homework and reading – have not been widely correlated with obesity.
Methods: Convenience sample of 124 patients between 7-18 years old from an urban, impoverished community.
Results: Forty seven patients (38%) met criteria for obesity. The children spend much of their time watching television (86 (69%) spend 1-7 hours per week), playing video games (84 (68%) spend 1-7 hours per week), and homework (80 (65%) spend 1-7 hours per week). Most children are not involved in extracurricular activities: Sixty eight (55%) do not play organized sports, 109 (89%) do not participate in social clubs. Only lack of reading (LR=7.2, p=0.01) and lack of doing homework (LR= 3.5, p=0.05) were associated with increased obesity. Perception of neighborhood safety was not associated with increased obesity.
Conclusions: In this population where prevalence of obesity was high, lack of reading and doing homework was correlated with increased prevalence of obesity.