Disparities in obesity among rural and urban residents in a health disparate region

Hill, Jennie L.; You, Wen; Zoellner, Jamie M.

Disparities in obesity among rural and urban residents in a health disparate region

dc.contributor.author	Hill, Jennie L.	en
dc.contributor.author	You, Wen	en
dc.contributor.author	Zoellner, Jamie M.	en
dc.contributor.department	Agricultural and Applied Economics	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-10-14T11:13:11Z	en
dc.date.available	2014-10-14T11:13:11Z	en
dc.date.issued	2014-10-08	en
dc.date.updated	2014-10-14T11:13:12Z	en
dc.description.abstract	Background The burden of obesity and obesity-related conditions is not borne equally and disparities in prevalence are well documented for low-income, minority and rural adults in the United States. The current literature on rural versus urban disparities is largely derived from national surveillance data which may not reflect regional nuances. There is little practical research that supports the reality of local service providers such as county health departments that may serve both urban and rural residents in a given area. Conducted through a community-academic partnership, the primary aim of this study is to quantify the current levels of obesity (BMI), fruit and vegetable (FV) intake and physical activity (PA) in a predominately rural health disparate region. Secondary aims are to determine if a gradient exists within the region in which rural residents have poorer outcomes on these indicators compared to urban residents. Methods Conducted as part of a larger ongoing community-based participatory research (CBPR) initiative, data were gathered through a random digit dial telephone survey using previously validated measures (n = 784). Linear, logistic and quantile regression models are used to determine if residency (i.e. rural, urban) predicts outcomes of FV intake, PA and BMI. Results The majority (72%) of respondents were overweight (BMI = 29 ± 6-kg/m2), with 29% being obese. Only 9% of residents met recommendations for FV intake and 38% met recommendations for PA. Statistically significant gradients between urban and rural and race exist at the upper end of the BMI distribution. In other words, the severity of obesity is worse among black compared to white and for urban residents compared to rural residents. Conclusions These results will be used by the community-academic partnership to guide the development of culturally relevant and sustainable interventions to increase PA, increase FV intake and reduce obesity within this health disparate region. In particular, local stakeholders may wish to address disparities in BMI by allocating resources to the vulnerable groups identified.	en
dc.description.version	Published version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	BMC Public Health. 2014 Oct 08;14(1):1051	en
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1051	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50560	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.holder	Jennie L Hill et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.title	Disparities in obesity among rural and urban residents in a health disparate region	en
dc.title.serial	BMC Public Health	en
dc.type	Article - Refereed	en
dc.type.dcmitype	Text	en