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.
Keywords: epidemiology; public health.
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