Neighborhood Safety Collective Efficacy and Obesity in Women with Young Children

The characteristics of neighborhoods can influence how and where people spend their time, and unsafe neighborhoods are often thought to contribute to the obesity epidemic by decreasing outdoor activity. Despite a hypothesized link between neighborhood safety and obesity, this was the first study to evaluate this association among adults. Using data collected in 20 large U.S. cities for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, researchers found that mothers who perceived their neighborhoods to be safer had a lower body mass index and were less likely to be obese, even after controlling for multiple measures of socioeconomic status.