Violent neighborhoods making NYC children unhealthy, obese, study claims

Adam Devine
Children playing on a winter day in the Bronx

NEW YORK, NY – A study published by Science Direct in October claims life in dangerous New York City neighborhoods is contributing to the overall obesity and unhealthiness of city children.

According to the paper, researchers estimated the relationship between neighborhood violent crime and child and adolescent weight and fitness.

It used detailed data from the Fitnessgram assessments of public school students in New York City and matched that data to point specific crime data geocoded to students’ residential locations.

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The paper also claims city violence negatively affects the health of young girls more than boys.


“We find for adolescent girls, increases in BMI that range from 0.01 to 0.035 standard deviations and an increase in the probability of overweight of 0.5 to 1.7 percentage points,” researchers claim. “We find little evidence that BMI, obesity, and overweight change as a result of violent crime for adolescent boys, and younger children.”


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