Yen IH, Kaplan GA. Poverty area residence and changes in physical activity level: evidence from the Alameda County study. American Journal of Public Health. 1998;88:1709-1712.
The authors investigated the effects of poverty area residence on change in physical activity using longitudinal survey data from Alameda County, California, for 1965 and 1974. Their findings support the importance of place in influencing physical activity. Mean physical activity was found to be lower among poverty area residents than among non-poverty area residents in both years.
For both poverty area and non-poverty area residents, mean physical activity decreased from 1965 to 1974. Even after adjusting for age, sex, baseline physical activity scores, individual income, education, smoking status, body mass index, and alcohol consumption, there were greater decreases in physical activity over the 1965-1974 period among poverty area residents than among non-poverty area residents. Race and income were differentially associated with changes in physical activity depending on the area of residence. Blacks and nonblacks in poverty areas showed similar decreases in physical activity between 1965 and 1974, and people with different incomes living in poverty areas showed similar decreases in physical activity over the period. This study supports other research suggesting that poverty areas may have a leveling effect on health outcomes, with everyone in poverty areas experiencing limited access to resources. In non-poverty areas, race and individual income were associated with changes in physical activity levels-which suggests that residents of non-poverty areas may have differential access to resources depending on their race or income.
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