ABSTRACT
Objective
As rates of childhood obesity and pediatric type 2 diabetes (T2D) increase, a better understanding is needed of how these 2 conditions relate and which subgroups of chil- dren are more likely to develop diabetes with and without obesity.
Methods
To compare hotspots of childhood obesity and pediatric T2D in New York City, we performed geospatial clustering analyses on obesity estimates obtained from surveys of school-aged children and diabetes estimates obtained from health care claims data, from 2009 to 2013. Analyses were per- formed at the Census tract level. We then used multivariable regression analysis to identify sociodemographic and environ- mental factors associated with these hotspots.
Results
We identified obesity hotspots in Census tracts with a higher proportion of Black or Hispanic residents, with low median household income, or located in a food swamp. Total 51.1% of pediatric T2D hotspots overlapped with obesity hot- spots. For pediatric T2D, hotspots were identified in Census tracts with a higher proportion of Black residents and a lower proportion of Hispanic residents.
Conclusions
Non-Hispanic Black neighborhoods had a higher probability of being hotspots of both childhood obesity and pediatric T2D. However, we identified a discordance between hotspots of childhood obesity and pediatric diabetes in Hispanic neighborhoods, suggesting either under-detection or under-diagnosis of diabetes, or that obesity may influence diabetes risk differently in these 2 populations. These findings warrant further investigation of the relationship between child- hood obesity and pediatric diabetes among different racial and ethnic groups, and may help guide pediatric public health interventions to specific neighborhoods.