Figure 1.

The environmental influences on childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is intimately linked to social, racial and economic differences in neighborhood environments (12). These differences contribute in myriad ways to a cycle of obesity and obesity-related comorbidities in low income and minority populations. While evidence of food access as a contributor to early childhood obesity has been mixed (17, 18) environmental factors, such as green space, neighborhood safety, and access to health care, are shown to predict obesity status in older children and adults (7, 8), while individual factors, such as race and income, are associated with both one’s residential neighborhood and obesity risk (11, 15).