Rural–Urban Differences in Overweight and Obesity, Physical Activity, and Food Security Among Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction Childhood obesity has been associated with numerous poor health conditions, with geographic disparities demonstrated. Limited research has examined the association between rurality and food security, physical activity, and overweight or obesity among children. We examined rates of food security, physical inactivity, and overweight or obesity among rural and urban children and adolescents, and associations between rurality and these 3 outcomes. Methods We used cross-sectional data from a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years from the 2019–2020 National Survey of Children’s Health (N = 23,199). We calculated frequencies, proportions, and unadjusted associations for each variable by using descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses. We used multivariable logistic regression models to examine the association between rurality and food security, physical activity, and overweight or obesity. Results After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, rural children and adolescents had higher odds than urban children and adolescents of being overweight or obese (adjusted odds ratio = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.11–1.52); associations between rurality and physical inactivity and food insecurity were not significant. Conclusion The information from this study is timely for policy makers and community partners to make informed decisions on the allocation of healthy weight and obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents in rural settings. Our study provides information for public health programming and the designing of appropriate dietary and physical activity interventions needed to reduce disparities in obesity prevention among children and adolescents.

Insegurança Alimentar E Sua Associação Com Obesidade Em Crianças: Uma Revisão Integrativa Da Literatura

“…Contudo, aqueles com IA foram os que mais apresentaram taxas de sobrepeso/obesidade (Eskandari, et al, 2022). Detectou-se que, independentemente da IA, crianças negras nãohispânicas tinham mais chances de terem sobrepeso/obesidade, (Crouch, et al, 2023). Em contraposição, pais imigrantes (latinos e negros, principalmente), tendem a ter alimentação mais saudável nos Estados Unidos, mesmo apresentando baixo status socioeconômico, enquanto pais nativo-americanos tendem a ter uma alimentação rica em açúcares, refletindose nas refeições das crianças (Flórez, et al, 2023).…”

“…As crianças, por dependerem de um responsável legal, podem adquirir obesidade devido aos alimentos não saudáveis ofertados no domicílio. Devido a isso, a associação entre obesidade infantil e IA em domicílios é complexa, o que explica as divergências entre os estudos que encontraram essa relação (Dubois, et al, 2023) e não encontraram (Crouch, et al, 2023).…”

Regional Variability in the Prevalence of Food Insecurity and Diet Quality among United States Children

“…A healthy diet provides children with the nutrients they need to grow and develop. Urban–rural differences in diet among US children have been well-documented, typically showing that rural children consume less nutritious diets than urban children [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].…”

A scoping review of the role of policy in mitigating childhood obesity in underserved populations using the RE‐AIM framework

“…Higher obesity rates are seen disproportionally in underserved populations such as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN; Bullock et al, 2017), Pacific Islander (Novotny et al, 2015), Black, and Hispanic children in parallel with White children (Fryar et al, 2020), youth living in poverty (Inoue et al, 2023), and geographic regions that lack access to healthy foods and safe neighborhoods for physical activity (Crouch et al, 2023).…”