Associations between Area-Level Unemployment, Body Mass Index, and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in an Urban Area

Ashley Isaac Naimi, Catherine Paquet, Lise Gauvin and Mark Daniel
Additional contact information
Ashley Isaac Naimi: Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Catherine Paquet: Sansom Institute for Health Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Lise Gauvin: Axe santé des populations, CRCHUM (Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal), Montréal, Québec H2W 1V1, Canada
Mark Daniel: Sansom Institute for Health Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

IJERPH, 2009, vol. 6, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: Introduction: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) has been linked to \"neighbourhood\" socioeconomic status (nSES), often operationalized as a composite index of aggregate income, occupation and education within predefined administrative boundaries. The role of specific, non-composite socioeconomic markers has not been clearly explained. It is also unclear whether the relationship between nSES and CVD varies according to sex. We sought to determine whether area-level unemployment (ALU) was associated with CVD risk, and whether this association differed by sex. Methods: 342 individuals from the Montreal Neighbourhood Survey of Lifestyle and Health provided self-reported behavioural and socioeconomic information. A nurse collected biochemical and anthropometric data. ALU, a weighted average of the proportion of persons 15-years and older available for but without work, was measured using a Geographic Information System for a 250 m buffer centred on individual residence. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to estimate the associations between ALU, body mass index (BMI) and a cumulative score for total cardiometabolic risk (TCR). Results: After confounder adjustments, the mean 4 th minus 1 st quartile difference in BMI was 3.19 kg/m 2 (95% CI: 2.39, 3.99), while the prevalence ratio for the 4 th relative to 1 st quartile for TCR was 2.20 (95 % CI: 1.53, 3.17). Sex interacted with ALU; women relative to men had greater mean 3.97 kg/m 2 (95% CI: 2.08, 5.85) BMI and greater mean TCR 1.51 (95% CI: 0.78, 2.90), contrasted at mean ALU. Conclusions: Area-level unemployment is associated with greater CVD risk, and this association is stronger for women.

Keywords: neighbourhood; unemployment; cardiovascular diseases; residence characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/6/12/3082/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/6/12/3082/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:6:y:2009:i:12:p:3082-3096:d:6439

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().