Abstract
Objective. To determine if neighborhoods and their attributes contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent inactivity. Methods. We undertook a cross-sectional analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 17 007), a nationally representative school-based study in the United States. Stratifying by gender, we used multivariate linear regression and multi-level modeling to determine whether neighborhood of residence may partially explain racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent physical inactivity, defined as hours viewing television or videos/DVDs and/or playing computer/video games each week. Results. Participants lived in largely segregated communities. Black and Hispanic adolescent girls reported higher levels of inactivity than White adolescent girls (21 vs. 15 vs. 13 hours/week, respectively, p < 0.001). Similar patterns were seen in adolescent boys, with Black adolescent males reporting a mean of 26 hours/week; Hispanic boys a mean of 20 hours/week; and White boys a mean of 17 hours/week of inactivity (p < 0.001). After accounting for between-neighborhood variation, there were no residual within-neighborhood differences in inactivity between Hispanic and White adolescent girls (gamma = − 0.06, p = 0.93); when living in the same neighborhood Hispanic and White girls had similar levels of inactivity. Black adolescent girls and boys were found to have higher levels of inactivity no matter where they lived (gamma = 7.00, p < 0.001 for girls; gamma = 6.96, p < 0.001 for boys). Hispanic boys had similar patterns of inactivity to White boys (gamma = − 1.57, p = 0.12). In both males and females, the reported rate of violent crime in the neighborhood was associated with inactivity, despite the individual's perception of his/her neighborhood as safe not being predictive. Conclusions. Although inactivity varies by race/ethnicity and gender, only in Hispanic adolescent girls does neighborhood fully explain the differential use. Our findings suggest that approaches other than changing neighborhood characteristics are needed to eliminate racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent inactivity.
Acknowledgements
This research uses data from the Add Health project, a program designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 ([email protected]).
Funding for this project was provided by grants from the National Institutes for Health (T32 HD 043034-02 and DK065085) and the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Training Program grant MCT71 00009.