Subscribe to the RSS feed.New Study Confirms Neighborhood Can Correlate to Type 2 Diabetes Risk
Although there’s been a lot of discussion around the concept of “healthy” neighborhoods, no multistate studies have actually compared the extent to which features of residential environments contribute to the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Until now.
A study led by Dr. Amy H. Auchincloss of the Drexel School of Public Health in Philadelphia found that living in a neighborhood where it’s easy to walk and where fresh fruits and vegetables are areadily available can significantly reduce a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The risk of diabetes associated with living in a “healthy” neighbor’hood was 38% lower than for people who lived in the unhealthiest places.
Researchers evaluated data from 2,285 adults aged 45 to 84 years residing in Baltimore and Baltimore County, Forsyth County, N.C. and New York City/Bronx who were included in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a population-based, prospective study. They obtained neighborhood data from a separate group of residents from these counties who responded to the Community Survey, a telephone survey conducted as part of the MESA ancillary Neighborhood Study.
