1. Exploring how socioeconomic status affects neighbourhood environments' effects on obesity risks: A longitudinal study in Singapore.
- Author
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Tan, Shin Bin, Dickens, Borame L., Sevtsuk, Andres, Zheng, Siqi, Zeng, Kangwei, Lee, Yung Seng, Yap, Fabian, Chan, Shiao-Yng, Chan, Jerry Kok Yen, Tan, Kok Hian, Chong, Yap-Seng, Eriksson, Johan G., Chong, Mary F.-F., and Arcaya, Mariana C.
- Subjects
HOUSING discrimination ,SOCIOECONOMIC status ,NEIGHBORHOODS ,LONGITUDINAL method ,BUS stops ,RAILROAD stations - Abstract
• Study of how socioeconomic status (SES) modifies neighbourhoods' effect on BMI. • Based in Singapore, which has less structural confounding from spatial segregation. • More park connectors associated with BMI decrease for higher SES moms; inverse for lower SES. • Increased access to bus stops associated with BMIz increase of lower SES children; inverse for higher SES. • Effect of urban interventions might be modified by socioeconomic status. Research on how socioeconomic status interacts with neighbourhood characteristics to influence disparities in obesity outcomes is currently limited by residential segregation-induced structural confounding, a lack of empirical studies outside the U.S. and other 'Western' contexts, and an over-reliance on cross-sectional analyses. This study addresses these challenges by examining how socioeconomic status modifies the effect of accumulated exposures to obesogenic neighbourhood environments on children and mothers' BMI, drawing from a longitudinal mother-child birth cohort study in Singapore, an Asian city-state with relatively little residential segregation. We find that increased access to park connectors was associated with a decrease in BMI outcomes for mothers with higher socioeconomic status, but an increase for those with lower socioeconomic status. We also find that increased access to bus stops was associated with an increase in BMIz of children with lower socioeconomic status, but with a decrease in BMIz of children with higher socioeconomic status, while increased access to rail stations was associated with a decrease in BMIz of children with lower socioeconomic status only. Our results suggest that urban interventions might have heterogeneous effects by socioeconomic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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