Daily HealthBeat Tip

Unsafe and overweight

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

If you feel your neighborhood isn't safe, it may be harder to get out and do the physical activity people need for good health.

Researchers find a sign of this in data on 2,400 mothers of preschoolers in 20 large cities. Their work, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the journal Obesity.

Thirty-seven percent of moms who rated their neighborhoods safe were obese. But obesity was 46 percent in neighborhoods rated least safe.

Hillary Burdette of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia says it'll take more research to know if unsafe neighborhoods foster obesity. But she says people who don't get out because they don't think it's safe have some alternatives. Among them:

"They might consider pursuing those outdoor activities with a partner or a companion � walking with a friend, for example." (six seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 18, 2006

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