Does ethnic concentration buffer effects of neighborhood deprivation on early childhood growth?

Background: Neighborhood socioeconomic marginalization and racial residential segregation are associated with differential health outcomes in adulthood and pregnancy, but the intergenerational effects of these exposures on early childhood growth are underexplored. Our objective was to investigate racial and ethnic differences in the association between neighborhood deprivation and early childhood growth trajectories, with modification by neighborhood racial concentration.

Methods: Using longitudinal clinical data among 58,860 children receiving care in community-based clinics in the ADVANCE Clinical Data Research Network, we identified four early childhood (0-24 months) body mass index (BMI) trajectories using group-based trajectory modeling: Low, Catch-Up, Moderate, and High. In race- and ethnicity-stratified multinomial logistic regression analyses, trajectory group membership was modeled as a function of neighborhood deprivation, neighborhood racial concentration, neighborhood deprivation*racial concentration interactions, and confounders.

Results: Greater neighborhood deprivation was marginally associated with greater odds of Catch-Up trajectory for most racial and ethnic groups, with a null association observed among Assimilated Hispanic children. Conversely, neighborhood deprivation was not associated with Low trajectory for non-Hispanic Black or White children; however, in Less Assimilated Hispanic children, higher neighborhood deprivation was marginally associated with higher odds of Low trajectory, most strongly in neighborhoods with higher vs. lower Hispanic concentration. Associations between neighborhood deprivation and High trajectories varied substantially by race and ethnicity, ranging from inverse among Less Assimilated Hispanic children to a positive association among non-Hispanic White children that was attenuated in neighborhoods with higher White concentration.

Conclusion: Greater neighborhood deprivation was generally associated with greater or similar odds of each alternative growth trajectory, most consistently for non-Hispanic White and Black children. Associations were largely similar across levels of neighborhood racial concentration. Further research is needed to understand contextual or behavioral factors that contribute to the observed racial and ethnic differences in the association between neighborhood deprivation and early childhood growth.