Community social environments and cigarette smoking.

Cigarette smoking remains a primary contributor to health disparities in the United States, and significant evidence suggests that smoking behavior is socially influenced. Though residential neighborhoods are important for health disparities, recent evidence suggests that people spend the majority of their waking time away from the residential neighborhood. We advance research on neighborhoods and smoking by using individual, neighborhood, and activity space data for adults in the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.

Neighborhood social environments, healthy resources, and adult diabetes: Accounting for activity space exposures.

This study broadens contextual environments to include adults' activity spaces-inside and outside the residential neighborhood-to examine how contextual exposures shape type 2 diabetes risk. We use novel longitudinal data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, construct time-weighted exposure measures of adults' social-structural and healthy resource environments, and execute random effects logistic models predicting the probability of being diabetic. Results indicate that residential and activity space exposures are independently associated with adult diabetes, and that residential and activity space healthy resources combine to influence diabetes risk in synergistic ways.

Food insecurity in households with young children: A test of contextual congruence.

Household food insecurity, an inability to provide adequate nutrition for a healthy, active lifestyle, affects nearly 1 in 7 households with children in the United States. Though rates of food insecurity declined to pre-recession levels just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are now once again increasing. As a result, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, millions of young children continue to grow up in households that struggle daily with a problem that is often associated with the developing world.

Families in Context: Food Insecurity Among Hispanic Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Households With Children.

Using restricted, geo-coded Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 data (N = 2700) linked with 3 sources of contextual data, we examine whether a comprehensive set of individual, household, and county-level characteristics explains disparities in household food insecurity between Hispanic children of foreign- and US-born parents. Adjusting for individual, household, and county-level characteristics does not eliminate the higher odds of household food insecurity among Hispanic children in immigrant families, especially of Mexican origin. Moreover, growth in the noncitizen population at the county level is associated with food insecurity among Hispanic families, though the impact differs by parental nativity.

Does neighborhood social and environmental context impact race/ethnic disparities in childhood asthma?

Utilizing over 140,000 geocoded medical records for a diverse sample of children ages 2-12 living in Houston, Texas, we examine whether a comprehensive set of neighborhood social and environmental characteristics explain racial and ethnic disparities in childhood asthma. Adjusting for all individual risk factors, as well as neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, particulate matter, ozone concentration, and race/ethnic composition, reduced but did not fully attenuate the higher odds of asthma diagnosis among black (OR=2.59, 95% CI=2.

Home and away: Area socioeconomic disadvantage and obesity risk.

Although residential context is linked to obesity risk, less is known about how the additional places where we work, shop, play, and worship may influence that risk. We employ longitudinal data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS) to derive time-weighted measures of exposure to home and activity space contexts to ascertain the impacts of each on obesity risk for adults. Results show that increased exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage in the residential neighborhood significantly increases obesity risk, and although activity space disadvantage does not directly influence obesity, it reduces the association between residential disadvantage and obesity.

Social Cohesion and Food Insecurity: Insights from the Geographic Research on Wellbeing (GROW) Study.

Objectives Food insecurity in the United States is a stubborn public health issue, affecting more than one in five households with children and disproportionately impacting racial and ethnic minority women and their children. Past research and policy has focused on household predictors of food insecurity, but neglected broader factors, such as perceived neighborhood social cohesion, that might protect those most vulnerable to food insecurity. Methods We use a racially and ethnically diverse data set from the Geographic Research on Wellbeing study (N = 2847) of women and their young children in California to investigate whether social cohesion influences food insecurity and whether it moderates the relationship between race/ethnicity and food insecurity.

Transitions Into Food Insecurity Associated With Behavioral Problems And Worse Overall Health Among Children.

Children living in food-insecure households face myriad challenges to their well-being. The Great Recession of December 2007-June 2009 increased food insecurity to the highest levels ever measured in the United States. Using nationally representative data from the period 2010-12 for 6,300 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11, with household incomes below 300 percent of the federal poverty level and a dynamic measure of food insecurity transitions, we assessed the impact of transitions into and out of household food insecurity on the academic achievement, behavioral problems, and health status of young children.

Sedentary behavior, body mass index, and weight loss maintenance among African American women.

Objectives: Relationships among sedentary behavior, weight gain, and weight loss and regain are understudied particularly for African Americans, a high risk group for obesity. The hypotheses were: sedentary behavior is positively associated with current body mass and % of weight loss maintained after initial weight loss; these associations differ by physical activity status.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Physical Activity Disparities Between US-born and Immigrant Children by Maternal Region of Origin.

We examined and compared patterns in physical activity participation for children of US-born and immigrant mothers from seven world geographic regions, and tested whether the physical activity differences were attenuated by socioeconomic status or maternal language proficiency. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten data (N = 18,850) we utilized logistic regression to predict adequate vigorous physical activity and participation in group and individual sports for kindergarten children. US-born children of US-born parents have significantly higher rates of physical activity compared to immigrant children.

Neighborhood context and immigrant children's physical activity.

Physical activity is an important determinant of obesity and overall health for children, but significant race/ethnic and nativity disparities exist in the amount of physical activity that children receive, with immigrant children particularly at risk for low levels of physical activity. In this paper, we examine and compare patterns in physical activity levels for young children of U.S.

Neighborhood context and racial/ethnic differences in young children's obesity: structural barriers to interventions.

Numerous studies in the last ten years have investigated racial/ethnic disparities in obesity for young children. Increasing attention is paid to the influence of neighborhood environments - social and physical-on a variety of young children's health outcomes. This work identifies resource-based and community-based mechanisms that impede on the maintenance of healthy weights for young children in socioeconomically depressed areas, and shows consistently higher rates of obesity in more deprived areas.

The association between acculturation and health insurance coverage for immigrant children from socioeconomically disadvantaged regions of origin.

Among immigrant children whose parents have historically had lower education, the study explored which immigrant children were most likely to have coverage based on maternal region of origin. The direct and indirect relationship of acculturation on immigrant children's coverage was also assessed. A subsample of US-born children with foreign-born mothers from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Cohort was analyzed using multinomial logistic regressions (n = 1,686).

Neighborhood Poverty and Maternal Fears of Children's Outdoor Play.

Investigating children's outdoor play unites scholarship on neighborhoods, parental perceptions of safety, and children's health. Utilizing the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N=3,448), we examine mothers' fear of their five-year-old children playing outdoors, testing associations with neighborhood social characteristics, city-level crime rates, maternal mental health, and social support. Living in public housing, perceptions of low neighborhood collective efficacy, and living in a Census tract with a higher proportion of Blacks and households in poverty are associated with higher odds of maternal fear, but crime rates are not a significant predictor of fear.

Young children in urban areas: links among neighborhood characteristics, weight status, outdoor play, and television watching.

Although research consistently demonstrates a link between residential context and physical activity for adults and adolescents, less is known about young children's physical activity. Using data from the U.S.

Federal food policy and childhood obesity: a solution or part of the problem?

Amid growing concern about childhood obesity, the United States spends billions of dollars on food assistance: providing meals and subsidizing food purchases. We examine the relationship between food assistance and body mass index (BMI) for young, low-income children, who are a primary target population for federal food programs and for efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Our findings indicate that food assistance may unintentionally contribute to the childhood obesity problem in cities with high food prices.

The Influence of Acculturation on Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration for Mexican-Americans.

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to test the hypotheses that (1) Similar to other positive pre- and post-natal outcomes, Mexican immigrant mothers are more likely to breastfeed, and to breastfeed longer, than white or Mexican-American mothers; and (2) Acculturation accounts for the ethnic/nativity differential in breastfeeding initiation and duration. The results support both hypotheses. Mexican immigrants to the U.

Race, ethnicity, and the education gradient in health.

Using pooled data from the 2000-2006 National Health Interview Survey, we document how the relationship between education and a broad range of health measures varies by race/ethnicity and nativity. We found that education is a more powerful determinant of health behaviors and outcomes for some groups than it is for others. In addition, the education differentials for foreign-born groups are typically more modest than those for corresponding native-born populations.

Racial and ethnic differentials in overweight and obesity among 3-year-old children.

Objectives: We estimated racial/ethnic differences in overweight and obesity in a national sample of 3-year-olds from urban, low-income families and assessed possible determinants of differences.

Methods: Survey, in-home observation, and interview data were collected at birth, 1 year, and 3 years. We used logistic regression analyses and adjusted for a range of covariates in examining overweight and obesity differentials according to race/ethnicity.

On-the-job moms: work and breastfeeding initiation and duration for a sample of low-income women.

Objectives: As both employed and breastfeeding mothers increase, more women are facing the decision of whether and how to combine the behaviors. This paper examines three hypotheses for a sample of low-income women: 1) Mothers who expect to return to work after the birth of their baby will be less likely to initiate breastfeeding; 2) The timing of the return to work and quitting breastfeeding will coincide; 3) Mothers in professional jobs and Stay-at-Home (SAH) Moms will breastfeed for longer durations than mothers with other types of jobs.

Methods: The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a sample of mostly low-income, unmarried U.