Authors
Alicia Kunin-Batson, Christopher Carr, Allan Tate, Amanda Trofholz, Michael F Troy, Rachel Hardeman, Jerica M Berge
Publication date
2023/10/1
Journal
Family & community health
Volume
46
Pages
S30-S40
Publisher
LWW
Description
Psychosocial stressors have been implicated in childhood obesity, but the role of racism-related stressors is less clear. This study explored associations between neighborhood inequities, discrimination/harassment, and child body mass index (BMI). Parents of children aged 5-9 years from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds (n= 1307), completed surveys of their child's exposure to discrimination/harassment. Census tract data derived from addresses were used to construct an index of concentration at the extremes, a measure of neighborhood social polarization. Child's height and weight were obtained from medical records. Multiple regression and hierarchical models examined child's BMI and racism at the individual and census tract levels. Children residing in the most Black-homogenous census tracts had 8.2 percentage units higher BMI percentile (95% confidence interval, 1.5-14.9) compared with white …
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