Risk behaviors and sports facilities do not explain the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic context and childhood obesity in a city in Southern Europe.

Abstract

To evaluate whether the relation between neighborhood socioeconomic context and childhood obesity can be explained by household socioeconomic position, obesity-related risk behaviors and sports facilities. 727 children and adolescent representative of the population aged 6–15 years resident in Madrid (Spain) in 2005 were analyzed. Using odds ratios calculated by multilevel logistic regression, the association between two indicators of neighborhood socioeconomic context – per capita income and percentage of population with tertiary education – and overweight and obesity was estimated. With respect to the richest neighborhoods and with respect to the neighborhoods having the highest percentage of population with university studies, children and adolescents living in the neighborhoods with the lowest per capita income and with lowest percentage of population with university studies, had an age- and sex-adjusted odds ratios for overweight 1.84 and 1.68 times greater, respectively. After adjusting for household socioeconomic position, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity the odds ratios were 1.80 and 1.56, respectively. In the case of obesity the age- and sex-adjusted odds ratios were 3.35 and 3.29, and its magnitude was increased 3.77 and 3.42 after adjustment for the rest of variables. No relation was found between the number of sports facilities and physical inactivity. The relation of socioeconomic context with childhood obesity could not be explained by household socioeconomic position or obesity-related risk behaviors. Availability of sport facilities does not explain this relation either.