title: Neighborhood environment and body mass index trajectories from adolescence to adulthood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether neighborhood conditions during adolescence are associated with body mass index (BMI) extending into young adulthood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine BMI over three waves (1996, 2001, and 2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 9,115).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parental perceptions of neighborhood disorder and neighborhood structural disadvantage were positively associated with BMI at baseline. Although parental perceptions of disorder were not associated with the rate of change in BMI over time, neighborhood structural disadvantage was positively associated with the slope of BMI. Adolescents who lived in more disadvantaged neighborhoods not only had higher BMI at the beginning of the study, but they also gained weight at a faster rate than those who lived in more advantaged neighborhoods at the first wave of data collection. The data also revealed notable gender, racial, and ethnic subgroup variations in the relationship between neighborhood context and BMI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The neighborhood environment during the critical period of adolescence appears to have a long-term effect on BMI in adulthood. Policy interventions focusing on the neighborhood environment may have far-reaching effects on adult health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Center for Demography and Population Health, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2270, USA. aburdette@fsu.edu
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Burdette
authors.forename: Belinda L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Needham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult