Exposure to violence and obesity linked in teens
More than 20 percent of U.S. adolescents are classified as obese. Obesity rates are higher among low-income children, and the rates are highest among Hispanic and African American children ages 12 to 19. Children exposed to violence are at greater risk for obesity, but exactly how that occurs is not well understood, the researchers said. "Teens provided an unique window into their lives through daily mobile-phone reports and streaming data on sleep and activity from their wearable devices," said Candice Odgers, a professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy and senior author of the study. "Teens' constant connectivity allowed us to identify same-day correlates of violence exposure versus simply documenting that children exposed to violence are more likely to be obese." The study appears online in the journal Social Science & Medicine . Researchers collected data via cellphone multiple times per day for 30 days from an at-risk group of teens ...