Table 5 Neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics and body mass index.
| Model 1* (individual sociodemographic factors) | Model 2* (individual sociodemographic and behavioural factors) | Model 3* (individual sociodemographic and behavioural factors, and neighbourhood SES) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regression coefficient (SE) | p Value | Regression coefficient (SE) | p Value | Regression coefficient (SE) | p Value | |
| Individual factors | ||||||
| Age (year)† | 0.063 (0.004) | <0.001 | 0.061 (0.004) | <0.001 | 0.061 (0.004) | <0.001 |
| Individual SES†,‡ | −0.566 (0.069) | <0.001 | −0.589 (0.069) | <0.001 | −0.532 (0.072) | <0.001 |
| Hispanic ethnicity | 1.619 (0.188) | <0.001 | 1.533 (0.188) | <0.001 | 1.393 (0.192) | <0.001 |
| Gender (men vs women) | 1.321 (0.109) | <0.001 | 1.599 (0.111) | <0.001 | 1.596 (0.110) | <0.001 |
| Smoking§ | — | — | ||||
| Current | −1.022 (0.133) | <0.001 | −1.022 (0.133) | <0.001 | ||
| Past | −0.061 (0.130) | NS | −0.070 (0.130) | NS | ||
| Physical activity¶ | — | — | −0.570 (0.034) | <0.001 | −0.571 (0.034) | <0.001 |
| Nutrition knowledge** | — | — | −0.238 (0.133) | <0.05 | −0.233 (0.113) | <0.05 |
| Neighbourhood SES†† | ||||||
| Low tertile | — | — | — | — | 0.647 (0.196) | <0.01 |
| Middle tertile | — | — | — | — | 0.0171 (0.139) | NS |
NS, not significant; SES, socioeconomic status.
*Survey year and city were also included in these regressions.
†Centred around the mean.
‡Individual SES was a composite variable derived from annual household income and educational attainment.
§Smoking was defined by a categorical variable (current smoker, past smoker, never smoker).
¶Physical activity was assessed by asking participants to rate their level of physical activity relative to others of their age on a scale of 1–7 (higher scores indicate higher levels of activity).
**A dichotomous variable derived from 17 questions was developed to assess nutrition knowledge. The median score, 4/17, was the cut‐off point used to create this dichotomous variable.
††Defined by the neighbourhood SES index, which was derived from census information on median family income, median housing value, percentage of blue collar workers, percentage of unemployed and percentage having less than high‐school education, and categorised into survey‐specific tertiles, compared with high tertile.