Tract- and county-level income inequality and individual risk of obesity in the United States |
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| Institution: | 2. University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX, 77555-1150;3. Wayne State University, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 259 Mack Ave., Detroit, MI 48202;1. School of Sociology, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210027, Tucson, AZ 85721-0027, USA;2. Department of Sociology, University of Utah, 380 S 1530 E Rm 301, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0250, USA;3. Department of Sociology, Vietnam National University, 336 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi 10000, Viet Nam;4. Program in Public Health, Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook Medicine, Level 3, Room 071, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8338, USA;1. The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, United States;2. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dept of Emergency Medicine, Dallas, TX, United States;3. The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education at The Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, United States |
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| Abstract: | ObjectivesWe tested three alternative hypotheses regarding the relationship between income inequality and individual risk of obesity at two geographical scales: U.S. Census tract and county.MethodsIncome inequality was measured by Gini coefficients, created from the 2000 U.S. Census. Obesity was clinically measured in the 2003–2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The individual measures and area measures were geo-linked to estimate three sets of multi-level models: tract only, county only, and tract and county simultaneously. Gender was tested as a moderator.ResultsAt both the tract and county levels, higher income inequality was associated with lower individual risk of obesity. The size of the coefficient was larger for county-level Gini than for tract-level Gini; and controlling income inequality at one level did not reduce the impact of income inequality at the other level. Gender was not a significant moderator for the obesity-income inequality association.ConclusionsHigher tract and county income inequality was associated with lower individual risk of obesity, indicating that at least at the tract and county levels and in the context of cross-sectional data, the public health goal of reducing the rate of obesity is in line with anti-poverty policies of addressing poverty through mixed-income development where neighborhood income inequality is likely higher than homogeneous neighborhoods. |
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| Keywords: | Income inequality Obesity Neighborhood Census tract County NHANES |
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