Increasing overweight and obesity erodes engagement in one's neighborhood by women, but not men.

ABSTRACT: Obesity is socially stigmatized in the U.S., especially for women. Significant research has focused on the role that the social and built environments of neighborhoods play in shaping obesity. However, the role of obesity in shaping neighborhood social structure has been largely overlooked. We test the hypothesis that large body size inhibits an individual's engagement in his or her neighborhood. Our study objectives are to assess if (1) body size (body mass index) interacts with gender to predict engagement in one's neighborhood (neighborhood engagement) and (2) if bonding social capital interacts with gender to predict neighborhood engagement independent of body size. We used data collected from the cross-sectional 2011 Phoenix Area Social Survey (PASS), which systematically sampled resi

SUBMITTER: Schuster RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5945908 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature