Trends in school‐neighbourhood inequalities and youth obesity: Repeated cross‐sectional analyses of the public schools in the state of California

Abstract

Background: It is currently unknown whether the relationship between affluence of school neighbourhoods and prevalence of youth overweight/obesity is uniform across demographic subgroups and areal context in the United States. Methods:We examined association between school-neighbourhood income tertiles and school-level overweight/obesity (OVOB) prevalence, using data on body mass index of fifth, seventh, and nineth graders who attended public schools in California in 2001 and 2010 (n = 1 584 768), using multiple logistic regression models.Results: Overall, OVOB prevalence was higher in lower-income school neighbourhoods, with a steeper income-OVOB gradient for girls. Among boys, the gradient became steeper in 2010 than 2000. Among Asian and White girls, the negative gradients were steepest in rural areas. For African-American students in all areas and Latino boys in rural areas, there was less clear evidence of inverse income-OVOB gradients. Addition of fast-food restaurant availability to the models did not change the observed inverse school-neighbourhood income-obesity gradients. Conclusions:The findings suggest the needs to investigate reasons for this variability with consideration to combinations of sociodemographic, economic, and environmental risk factors that may contribute to disparities in childhood obesity.