New study links neighborhood food access to child obesity risk
- Date:
- September 16, 2024
- Source:
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
- Summary:
- A new study examined whether neighborhood food access in early life is associated with trajectories of child body mass index and obesity risk. Study results show that neighborhood food access matters. Residing in low-income, low-food-access neighborhoods during pregnancy or early childhood is linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) z-score and a more than 50% increased risk of obesity and severe obesity from childhood to adolescence. Investing in neighborhood resources to improve food access during pregnancy and early childhood may play a crucial role in preventing child obesity.
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Limited access to healthy foods, resulting from residence in under-resourced neighborhoods, is a critical public health concern. A new study suggests that residing in these areas during pregnancy or early childhood significantly raises the risk of obesity and severe obesity from childhood to adolescence.
The findings are published September 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.
While previous research has established a connection between food insecurity and obesity in adults, critical early life stages, such as pregnancy and early childhood are often overlooked, despite offering greater potential for intervention and influence on long-term health outcomes.
The prevalence of food insecurity in U.S. households with children under 18 years remains alarmingly high. Recent data indicates an increase from 12.5% in 2021 to 17.3% in 2022. At the same time, childhood obesity rates have been steadily rising. This dual burden is particularly worrying, as both conditions are strongly linked with long-term health consequences, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
The new findings, led by investigators from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, underscores the importance of early-life neighborhood environments in shaping child health outcomes.
"Understanding how experiencing food insecurity during these formative years impacts subsequent child obesity is essential. By unraveling the mechanisms and identifying risk factors linking neighborhood food access and obesity in children, we can develop targeted preventive strategies that may mitigate chronic conditions in the future," said lead author Izzuddin Aris, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
In this nationwide multi-cohort study, researchers examined data from over 28,000 children across the U.S., drawn from 55 birth cohorts participating in the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. The team focused on neighborhoods classified as low-income-low-food-access, where the nearest supermarket is more than 0.5 miles away in urban areas or over 10 miles away in rural regions. These neighborhoods, pose a significant challenge in accessing and purchasing healthier food options.
After adjusting for individual sociodemographic factors, study results found that residence in these neighborhoods during pregnancy was associated with >50% higher risk of obesity and severe obesity from childhood to adolescence and higher BMI z-scores at ages 5, 10, and 15 years. Similar associations were observed for children who lived in low-income-low-food-access neighborhoods during early childhood.
The study adds to the growing body of literature supporting the link between food insecurity and subsequent childhood obesity. In a previous study of ECHO participants, Dr. Aris and team found that residence in the lowest opportunity neighborhoods in early life was associated with ~80% higher obesity risk at similar life stages.
Adds Dr. Aris, "Our findings support a focus on investments or strategies to improve healthful food access in early life. This includes incentivizing new supermarkets in existing low-income-low-food-access neighborhoods, providing healthy-choice pantries, and improving access to healthier food choices in small retail corner and convenience stores. Such investments could play a crucial role in preventing child obesity and promoting healthier communities."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Izzuddin M. Aris, Allison J. Wu, Pi-I D. Lin, Mingyu Zhang, Huma Farid, Monique M. Hedderson, Yeyi Zhu, Assiamira Ferrara, Rana F. Chehab, Emily S. Barrett, Susan Carnell, Carlos A. Camargo, Su H. Chu, Hooman Mirzakhani, Rachel S. Kelly, Sarah S. Comstock, Rita S. Strakovsky, Thomas G. O’Connor, Jody M. Ganiban, Anne L. Dunlop, Dana Dabelea, Carrie V. Breton, Theresa M. Bastain, Shohreh F. Farzan, Christine C. Call, Tina Hartert, Brittney Snyder, Sara Santarossa, Andrea E. Cassidy-Bushrow, T. Michael O’Shea, Lacey A. McCormack, Margaret R. Karagas, Cindy T. McEvoy, Akram Alshawabkeh, Emily Zimmerman, Rosalind J. Wright, Mariel McCann, Robert O. Wright, Brent Coull, Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, Michele R. Hacker, Tamarra James-Todd, Emily Oken, P Brian Smith, L Kristin Newby, Linda Adair, Lisa P. Jacobson, Diane Catellier, Monica McGrath, Christian Douglas, Priya Duggal, Emily Knapp, Amii Kress, Courtney K. Blackwell, Maxwell A. Mansolf, Jin-Shei Lai, Emily Ho, David Cella, Richard Gershon, Michelle L. Macy, Suman R. Das, Jane E. Freedman, Simon A. Mallal, John A. McLean, Ravi V. Shah, Meghan H. Shilts, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Jose F. Cordero, John Meeker, Leonardo Trasande, Carlos A. Camargo, Kohei Hasegawa, Zhaozhong Zhu, Ashley F. Sullivan, Dana Dabelea, Wei Perng, Traci A. Bekelman, Greta Wilkening, Sheryl Magzamen, Brianna F. Moore, Anne P. Starling, Deborah J. Rinehart, Daphne Koinis Mitchell, Viren D'Sa, Sean C.L. Deoni, Hans-Georg Mueller, Cristiane S. Duarte, Catherine Monk, Glorisa Canino, Jonathan Posner, Tenneill Murray, Claudia Lugo-Candelas, Anne L. Dunlop, Patricia A. Brennan, Christine Hockett, Amy Elliott, Assiamira Ferrara, Lisa A. Croen, Monique M. Hedderson, John Ainsworth, Leonard B. Bacharier, Casper G. Bendixsen, James E. Gern, Diane R. Gold, Tina V. Hartert, Daniel J. Jackson, Christine C. Johnson, Christine L.M. Joseph, Meyer Kattan, Gurjit K. Khurana Hershey, Robert F. Lemanske, Jr., Susan V. Lynch, Rachel L. Miller, George T. O’Connor, Carole Ober, Dennis Ownby, Katherine Rivera-Spoljaric, Patrick H. Ryan, Christine M. Seroogy, Anne Marie Singh, Robert A. Wood, Edward M. Zoratti, Rima Habre, Shohreh Farzan, Frank D. Gilliland, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Deborah H. Bennett, Julie B. Schweitzer, Rebecca J. Schmidt, Janine M. LaSalle, Alison E. Hipwell, Kate E. Keenan, Catherine J. Karr, Nicole R. Bush, Kaja Z. LeWinn, Sheela Sathyanarayana, Qi Zhao, Frances Tylavsky, Kecia N. Carroll, Christine T. Loftus, Leslie D. Leve, Jody M. Ganiban, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Scott T. Weiss, Augusto A. Litonjua, Cindy T. McEvoy, Eliot R. Spindel, Robert S. Tepper, Craig J. Newschaffer, Kristen Lyall, Heather E. Volk, Rebecca Landa, Sally Ozonoff, Joseph Piven, Heather Hazlett, Juhi Pandey, Robert Schultz, Steven Dager, Kelly Botteron, Daniel Messinger, Wendy Stone, Jennifer Ames, Thomas G. O'Connor, Richard K. Miller, Emily Oken, Michele R. Hacker, Tamarra James-Todd, T. Michael O'Shea, Rebecca C. Fry, Jean A. Frazier, Rachana Singh, Caitlin Rollins, Angela Montgomery, Ruben Vaidya, Robert M. Joseph, Lisa K. Washburn, Semsa Gogcu, Kelly Bear, Julie V. Rollins, Stephen R. Hooper, Genevieve Taylor, Wesley Jackson, Amanda Thompson, Julie Daniels, Michelle Hernandez, Kun Lu, Michael Msall, Madeleine Lenski, Rawad Obeid, Steven L. Pastyrnak, Elizabeth Jensen, Christina Sakai, Hudson Santos, Jean M. Kerver, Nigel Paneth, Charles J. Barone, Michael R. Elliott, Douglas M. Ruden, Chris Fussman, Julie B. Herbstman, Amy Margolis, Susan L. Schantz, Sarah Dee Geiger, Andrea Aguiar, Karen Tabb, Rita Strakovsky, Tracey Woodruff, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Amy Padula, Joseph B. Stanford, Christina A. Porucznik, Angelo P. Giardino, Rosalind J. Wright, Robert O. Wright, Brent Collett, Nicole Baumann-Blackmore, Ronald Gangnon, Chris G. McKennan, Jo Wilson, Matt Altman, Judy L. Aschner, Annemarie Stroustrup, Stephanie L. Merhar, Paul E. Moore, Gloria S. Pryhuber, Mark Hudak, Ann Marie Reynolds Lyndaker, Andrea L. Lampland, Burton Rochelson, Sophia Jan, Matthew J. Blitz, Michelle W. Katzow, Zenobia Brown, Codruta Chiuzan, Timothy Rafael, Dawnette Lewis, Natalie Meirowitz, Brenda Poindexter, Tebeb Gebretsadik, Sarah Osmundson, Jennifer K. Straughen, Amy Eapen, Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow, Ganesa Wegienka, Alex Sitarik, Kim Woodcroft, Audrey Urquhart, Albert Levin, Tisa Johnson-Hooper, Brent Davidson, Tengfei Ma, Emily S. Barrett, Martin J. Blaser, Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Daniel B. Horton, Manuel Jimenez, Todd Rosen, Kristy Palomares, Lyndsay A. Avalos, Yeyi Zhu, Kelly J . Hunt, Roger B. Newman, Michael S. Bloom, Mallory H. Alkis, James R. Roberts, Sunni L. Mumford, Heather H. Burris, Sara B. DeMauro, Lynn M. Yee, Aaron Hamvas, Antonia F. Olidipo, Andrew S. Haddad, Lisa R. Eiland, Nicole T. Spillane, Kirin N. Suri, Stephanie A. Fisher, Jeffrey A. Goldstein, Leena B. Mithal, Raye-Ann O. DeRegnier, Nathalie L. Maitre, Ruby H.N. Nguyen, Meghan M. JaKa, Abbey C. Sidebottom, Michael J. Paidas, JoNell E. Potter, Natale Ruby, Lunthita Duthely, Arumugam Jayakumar, Karen Young, Isabel Maldonado, Meghan Miller, Jonathan L. Slaughter, Sarah A. Keim, Courtney D. Lynch, Kartik K. Venkatesh, Kristina W. Whitworth, Elaine Symanski, Thomas F. Northrup, Hector Mendez-Figueroa, Ricardo A. Mosquera, Margaret R. Karagas, Juliette C. Madan, Debra M. MacKenzie, Johnnye L. Lewis, Brandon J. Rennie, Bennett L. Leventhal, Young Shin Kim, Somer Bishop, Sara S. Nozadi, Li Luo, Barry M. Lester, Carmen J. Marsit, Todd Everson, Cynthia M. Loncar, Elisabeth C. McGowan, Stephen J. Sheinkopf, Brian S. Carter, Jennifer Check, Jennifer B. Helderman, Charles R. Neal, Lynne M. Smith. Neighborhood Food Access in Early Life and Trajectories of Child Body Mass Index and Obesity. JAMA Pediatrics, 2024; DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.3459
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