Living environment affects child's weight development from birth to
school age
Date:
January 24, 2022
Source:
University of Turku
Summary:
A new study shows that living in asocioeconomic disadvantaged
neighborhood is a risk factor for adverse weight development in
children under school age. Researchers studied the connection
between neighborhoods' socioeconomic status and children's weight
development from data covering over 11,000 Finnish children.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study shows that living in a neighbourhood socioeconomic
disadvantage is a risk factor for adverse weight development in children
under school age.
Researchers studied the connection between neighbourhoods' socioeconomic
status and children's weight development from data covering over 11,000
Finnish children.
==========================================================================
A new study conducted at the University of Turku, Finland, examined the association between the neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage and
the development of children's body mass index and the risk of overweight
from birth to school age. The children's growth data was acquired from
a national register of well-baby clinics.
Information on the socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood was linked
to the participants with address coordinates using the national grid
database of Statistics Finland. The database contains information that
is based on all Finnish residents on social and economic characteristics
at the level of 250 m x 250 m grids.
- The socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood was measured with
education level, household income, and unemployment rate. The results were independent of the education level, economic situation, marital status
and health of the children's parents, says lead author, Docent Hanna
Lagstro"m from the Department of Public Health of the University of Turku.
Living in a less prosperous neighbourhood posed a major risk for children
to develop overweight by school age in the population-based data, even
when the researchers considered factors that can increase the risk of overweight in childhood. These included e.g. mother's type 2 diabetes,
mother's smoking, and child's high birth weight. In neighbourhoods
with a higher socioeconomic status, children weighted more at birth,
but their weight development stabilised already by the age of four.
- This could implicate that neighbourhoods can offer very different types
of development environments for children, and that the risk of overweight
grows before school age in neighbourhoods with lower socio-economic
status. The results of our research are an important factor to take into consideration in e.g. city planning to ensure that inequality is stopped
right from the childhood, says Lagstro"m.
The study is based on 2008-2010 data from the Southwest Finland Birth
Cohort (SFBC). The Birth Cohort consists of all children born in the
Hospital District of Southwest Finland during those three years. In
this study, the participants consisted of the first children born to
the mothers during this this time.
The research was funded by the Academy of Finland and Juho Vainio
Foundation as well as the Hospital District of Southwest Finland.
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may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Samuli Rautava, Olli Turta, Jussi Vahtera, Jaana Pentti, Mika
Kivima"ki,
Jamie Pearce, Ichiro Kawachi, Pa"ivi Rautava, Hanna Lagstro"m.
Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Childhood Body Mass
Index Trajectories From Birth to 7 Years of Age. Epidemiology,
2021; 33 (1): 121 DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001420 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124103906.htm
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