Association of neighborhood-level social determinants and food environments with pediatric hypertension care

• Published in: Health & place Vol. 65; p. 102383
• Main Authors: Min, Jungwon, Griffis, Heather M., Tam, Vicky, Meyers, Kevin E., Natarajan, Shobha S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Body mass index; Body weight; Children; Childrens health; Expenditures; Fast food; Food; Food environments; Health technology assessment; Healthy food; Hypertension; Neighborhood; Neighborhoods; Obesity; Overweight; Patients; Pediatrics; Regression analysis; Regression models; Social disorganization; Social factors; Takeaway food; Urban environments; Hypertension; Pediatrics; Obesity; Neighborhood; Food environments
• ISSN: 1353-8292; 1873-2054
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102383

Despite the apparent relationship between neighborhood characteristics and health, few studies of child health address neighborhood-level barriers, which may contribute to clinic no-show rates and difficulties following treatment plans in children and youth. We used longitudinal data from an outpatient hypertension clinic to examine neighborhood social disorganization, built environments, and their associations with patients’ clinic attendance and the risk of obesity/hypertension using mixed-effects regression models. Patients from disorganized neighborhoods were less likely to attend a baseline visit, and more likely to develop overweight/obesity and hypertension during follow-up. High-level fast-food expenditures in the neighborhood were associated with higher BMI percentiles and SBP during follow-up.