Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and cross-sectional associations with obesity and urinary biomarkers of diet among New York City adults: the heart follow-up study

Objective

To determine whether neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and biomarkers of diet (urinary sodium and potassium excretion).

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Setting

The data reported were from the 2010 Heart Follow-up Study, a population-based representative survey of 1645 adults.

Participants

Community-dwelling diverse residents of New York City nested within 128 neighbourhoods (zip codes).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

BMI (kg/m²) and WC (inches) were measured during in-home visits, and 24-hour urine sample was collected to measure biomarkers of diet: sodium (mg/day) and potassium (mg/day), with high sodium and low potassium indicative of worse diet quality.

Results

After adjusting for individual-level characteristics using multilevel linear regressions, low versus high neighbourhood SES tertile was associated with 1.83 kg/m² higher BMI (95% CI 0.41 to 3.98) and 251 mg/day lower potassium excretion (95% CI –409 to 93) among women only, with no associations among men (P values for neighbourhood SES by sex interactions <0.05).

Conclusion

Our results suggest that women may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhood. Future neighbourhood research should explore sex differences, as these can inform tailored interventions.

Trial registration number

NCT01889589; Results.

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