Ewing, Reid
Brownson, Ross C.
Berrigan, David
Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Weight of United States Youth
American Journal of Preventive Medicine 31,6 (December 2006): 464-474.
Also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17169708
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Environment, Pollution/Urban Density; Geocoded Data; Geographical Variation; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Modeling; Obesity; Urbanization/Urban Living; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Weight;

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Background: Among United States youth there is an obesity epidemic with potential life-long health implications. To date, relationships between the built environment and body mass index (BMI) have not been evaluated for youth, and have not been evaluated longitudinally. Objectives: To determine if urban sprawl is associated with BMI for U.S. youth. Methods: Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted. Hierarchical modeling was used to relate characteristics of individuals, households, and places to BMI. Individual and household data were extracted from the NLSY97. The independent variable of interest was the county sprawl index, which was derived with principal components analyses from census and other data. Results: In a cross-sectional analysis, the likelihood of U.S. adolescents (aged 12–17 years) being overweight or at risk of overweight (≥85th percentile relative to the Centers for Disease Control growth charts) was associated with county sprawl (p=0.022). In another cross-sectional analysis, after controlling for sociodemographic and behavioral covariates, the likelihood of young adults (aged 18–23 years) being obese was also associated with county sprawl (p=0.048). By contrast, in longitudinal analyses, BMI growth curves for individual youth over the 7 years of NLSY97, and BMI changes for individual youth who moved between counties, were not related to county sprawl (although coefficient signs were as expected). Conclusions: Cross-sectional analyses suggest that urban form is associated with being overweight among U.S. youth. The strength of these relationships proved comparable to those previously reported for adults. Longitudinal analyses show no such relationship. It is unclear why these approaches give different results, but sample sizes, latent effects, and confounders may contribute.

Miech, Richard A.
Chilcoat, Howard
The Formation of a Socioeconomic Disparity: A Case Study of Cocaine and Marijuana Use in the 1990s
American Journal of Preventive Medicine 32,6,Supplement (June 2007): S171-S176.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379707001092
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Discrimination, Sex; Drug Use; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Gender Differences; Health Factors; Hispanics; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Factors; Substance Use;

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Background: Around the year 1990, the reputation of cocaine use changed from glamorous to undesirable, and at the same time, a socioeconomic disparity in cocaine use emerged. This study examined (1) whether the socioeconomic disparity was created by differential incidence, differential cessation, or both, (2) whether a socioeconomic disparity also developed in marijuana use, and (3) whether disparities formed across race, Hispanic ethnicity, and/or gender.

Methods: The analyses center on 6544 respondents aged 14–21 in 1979 in the National Longitudinal Survey of 1979 that provided information on past-year use of powder cocaine and marijuana use before and after 1990—specifically, in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, and 1998.

Results: Both differential incidence and differential cessation across education contributed to the formation of the socioeconomic disparity in cocaine use, although differential cessation played a more influential role in this cohort. A socioeconomic disparity in marijuana use also came about around the same time. No emerging disparities by race, Hispanic ethnicity, or gender were observed.

Conclusions: This case study suggests that the redefinition of a health behavior as unhealthy will result in a socioeconomic disparity in the behavior across socioeconomic strata as a result of both differential incidence and cessation, but disparities will not necessarily form by race, ethnicity, or gender. [Copyright 2007 Elsevier]

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