Can Moving to a Different Neighborhood Cause You to Gain Weight?

First Posted: May 09, 2015 11:27 AM EDT
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It turns out that moving to a depressed neighborhood may actually cause weight gain. Researchers have found that certain regions in the United States are characterized by a higher prevalence of obesity, and that the simple act of moving may cause a person to gain additional weight.

In order to see what happened when people moved, the researchers used data from the Dallas Heart Survey (DHS), a probability-based sample of over 3,000 Dallas County residents between the ages of 18 to 65 years. The study began between 200 and 2002, and the follow-up was conducted between 2007 and 2009. The scientists also linked each participant to Dallas county census block groups, and a Neighborhood Deprivation Index (NDI) was calculated for each block group. This score was based on the socioeconomic status (SES) of each block group.

"Longitudinal studies specifically examining the relationship between neighborhood SES change and obesity as a cardiovascular risk factor are rare and have had methodologic limitations," said Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This study sheds important light on the impact that changes in neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation by moving can have on weight change and subsequent obesity."

Of the people who relocated, the researchers found that those who moved to higher-NDI areas gained more weight compared to those who remained at the same NDI or moved to lower NDI. This, in turn, reveals that people are likely to gain weight by moving to higher-deprivation neighborhoods.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

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