Children in low-income areas face a higher risk of obesity when exposed to limited food access early in life. Efforts to improve food availability during pregnancy and infancy could significantly reduce childhood obesity rates. Study: Neighborhood Food Access in Early Life and Trajectories of Child Body Mass Index and Obesity .
Image Credit: Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock.com A recent JAMA Pediatrics study investigates associations between early childhood food accessibility, household income, child body mass index (BMI) trajectories, and adiposity risk. The health impacts of food insecurity on children Food insecurity affects millions of Americans each year, with current estimates indicating that over 10% of households in the United States were food insecure in 2022.
Families with children are disproportionately affected by food insecurity, which has been shown to increase the risk of childhood obesity and, as a result, long-term health issues such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Food insecurity and lack of healthy food options not only impact nutrition but contribute to chronic stress, which may lead to metabolic changes, further increasing the risk of childhood obesity. Longitudinal studies have often examined how food insecurity affects the risk of obesity in late childhood or adolescence.
However, early childhood has higher developmental plasticity and may significantly impact long-term health outcomes. Thus, improving awareness of the associations between early-li.