@article{7e9220c0bfca4787b4aeff7c013b5c85,
title = "Neighborhood racial isolation, disorder and obesity",
abstract = "Recent research suggests that racial residential segregation may be detrimental to health. This study investigates the influence of neighborhood racial isolation on obesity and considers the role of neighborhood disorder as a mediator in this relationship. For the city of Philadelphia, we find that residence in a neighborhood with high black racial isolation is associated with a higher body mass index and higher odds of obesity among women, but not men, highlighting important sex differences in the influence of neighborhood structure on health. Furthermore, the influence of high racial isolation on women's weight status is mediated, in part, by the physically disordered nature of such neighborhoods. Disorder of a more social nature (as measured by incident crime) is not associated with weight status.",
author = "Chang, {Virginia W.} and Hillier, {Amy E.} and Mehta, {Neil K.}",
note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by grant RWJF ID #052210 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research Program and grant K12-HD043459 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We are grateful to Jason Schnittker, Theodore Iwashyna and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. We also thank Mikko Myrskyl{\"a} for assistance with portions of the analysis. Early versions of this paper benefited from presentations at the Department of Sociology Colloquium Series at the University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Health Studies Seminar Series at the University of Chicago, the Wagner Research Colloquium at New York University and the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in 2008. Chang is with the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Departments of Medicine and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Direct correspondence to Virginia W. Chang, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1233 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Dr., Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021. E-mail:
[email protected].",
year = "2009",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1353/sof.0.0188",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "87",
pages = "2063--2092",
journal = "Social Forces",
issn = "0037-7732",
publisher = "University of North Carolina Press",
number = "4",
}