Moving to a Poor Neighborhood Risks Weight Gain, Pessimism

by Monica Joshi

Researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) published a study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine showing that people who moved to a more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods gained weight after their move. Based on the results, the team lead by Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley has suggested that more immediate grassroots community-based public health initiatives ought to be considered. 

Researchers under Powell-Wiley used data from the Dallas Heart Survey (DHS) to gather data. The data consisted of anthropometric measures, laboratory testing and a detailed survey to measure the Neighbourhood Deprivation Index (NDI) for a block group in Dallas between 2000 – 2002 and a seven year follow up in 2007 – 2009. The results of the study showed that moving to a low-income or poorer neighbourhood might cause partial weight gain. Higher values of NDI indicate a higher level of socioeconomic deprivation in a particular neighborhood. 

The lead investigator, Powell-Wiley emphasized that this study had never been done before because: 

"Longitudinal studies specifically examining the relationship between neighborhood SES change and obesity as a cardiovascular risk factor are rare and have had methodologic limitations. This study sheds important light on the impact that changes in neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation by moving can have on weight change and subsequent obesity." 

Among the people studied who relocated to a different neighborhood, 263 participants moved to a higher-NDI neighborhood, 586 to a lower-NDI neighborhood, 47 participants moved but had had no NDI change, and 939 participants remained in the same neighborhood. Those who moved to higher-NDI areas gained about 0.64 kg per 1-unit NDI increase compared to those who remained at the same NDI or moved to lower NDI. 

The results of the study show that future development of low socioeconomic neighborhoods need a set preventative public health initiatives that can both, address the large-scale issue of obesity and its factors. 

In America there are currently 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 6 children and adolescents who are classified as obese. This particular study is of utmost importance in determining the key health risk factors for that large group of individuals. The study encourages policy makers to not only acknowledge that neighborhood deprivation is a risk factor for obesity and related cardiovascular diseases, but also to implement the results of this study to a more NDI focused policy that systematically urges change in the socioeconomic conditions of low-income neighborhoods. 

On a similar note, a study in 2013 through the University of Chicago led by Ludwig et al. demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the negative effects of low-income neighborhoods supersede the ill effects on health. Living in a low-income neighbourhood without opportunity to move and grow affects the person negatively with respect to their perception of the world around them as well as their inability to want change. It aids a kind of complacency and satisfaction in mediocrity, or worse, poverty that is quite devastating to those living in the low-income neighborhoods. 

In order to address one of the many issues concerning low-income neighbourhoods, disparities and the source of those disparities need to be addressed through not just education, but also focused community-based public health initiatives.