Racial discrimination is the main cause for childhood obesity: Study

According to a new study published in JAMA Netwrok Open, socioeconomic factors such as family poverty and racial discrimination may be a risk factor for young people developing obesity. And, children who suffer racial discrimination are more likely to have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and a wider waistline later in life.

Adolfo Cuevas, assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences at the NYU School of Global Public Health and the study’s lead author said, “Exposure to racial discrimination must be acknowledged as both a social determinant of obesity and a significant contributor to obesity disparities among children and adolescents.” Nearly one in five children and teens are affected by childhood obesity, which is a major public health issue in the U.S. Research suggests Black and Hispanic youth experience even higher rates of obesity, which may stem from factors such as poverty, neighborhood access to healthy foods, and single-parent households.

While racial discrimination has been linked to higher BMI in adults, less is known about its impact on children and adolescents.The researchers inspected data from 6,463 children ages 9 to 11 from across the U.S. who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from 2017 to 2019. A growing body of research finds that another known stressor, racial discrimination, puts people at risk for a range of health issues, including sleep problems, high cortisol levels, and poor mental health.

Researchers first surveyed young people’s experiences of racial discrimination by asking them to resonate on whether they were treated unfairly by others based on their race or ethnicity. A year later, they measured the participants’ BMI and waist circumference. A year later researchers found out that kids who experienced greater racial discrimination had higher BMI and larger waist circumference. They conclude that reducing exposure to racial discrimination and its detrimental effects on wellbeing early in life could help limit the risk of weight gain across the lifespan.

“We tested discrimination at one time point, but it’s important to recognize that prolonged exposure to racial discrimination has the potential to further increase the risk of obesity. Therefore, preventing or at least mitigating the impact of discrimination sooner than later could potentially reduce the risk of obesity,” expressed Cuevas, who is also a scholar in the Center for Anti-Racism, Social Justice and Public Health at the NYU School of Global Public Health.

In addition to Cuevas, study authors include Brennan Rhodes-Bratton and Shu Xi of NYU; Danielle Krobath, Jesulagbarami Omolade, Aniyah Perry of Tufts; and Natalie Slopen of Harvard. The ABCD study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners.