UIC Logo Over the past years, investigations have asserted that neighborhood social and economic status pave way for obesity in childhood. Well, it now seems that the level of education and income has an impact on the number of obese individuals. Investigators from the University of Illinois at Chicago claim that lower educational attainment and certain ethnic profiles are linked with increased prevalence of obesity.

As a part of the study, experts evaluated their 2005 analysis of data from about 7 million northern Illinois drivers’ licenses which concluded that BMI scores in most city neighborhoods differ little from those in the farthest outlying areas. The findings apparently contradicted the commonly held belief that city dwellers are lean due to encouragement from the government for indulging in physical activity. Suburbanites and rural residents on the other hand, are presumed to drive in widely scattered destinations.

“Ambitious land use policies to address obesity may have little success with the low-income ethnic minorities who are most in need of assistance,” added Paul Metaxatos, UIC research assistant professor. “Those in marginal, transportation-disadvantaged communities would benefit from better access to medical help, better food markets, and information about lifestyle modifications.”

Having scrutinized the gathered data, it was noted that sprawl is not significantly linked with obesity. Authors observed that within zip codes, BMIs elevated with age and male gender, as well as the percentage of zip-code residents who commute by car, are African American or Latino, or own their homes. The prevalence of obesity supposedly reduced in zip codes with higher median income and more residents who have attended college.

In conclusion, obesity was found to be seemingly correlated with income and education, not sprawl.