A new article in City Lab covers a study that has produced a heat map of obesity in US neighborhoods. Read about it here: Where America’s Obese Live When it comes to this condition, place matters. Researchers believe that there are conditions in these neighborhoods that influence this health problem:



Through spatial cluster analyses, the researchers at RTI point out that these hot spots aren’t just random occurrences—they’re statistically significant. In other words, there’s something happening in these particular neighborhoods that’s fueling the high obesity rates.



You can view the interactive mapping tool from the study here. Above, you can see a capture of Atlanta’s map. The neighborhoods with high percentages of obesity (in red) are clearly separated from the ones with low percentages (in blue).



Notice how the spatial placement of the two extremes mirrors the Racial Dot Map’s display of black and white communities here:

And it also mirrors the separation of economic classes (as defined by job type) in the city:

The divided geography of class and race in Atlanta has a long history; so long that we’ve come to accept the segregation as inevitable. But consider the effects on health: we’ve got a large swath of the city where obesity is all around, and this is a health epidemic in our country that is related to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Also consider the effects on economic mobility: Atlanta is dead last in the US among big cities when it comes to the chances for a child born in poverty to rise in economic class. The time has come for leaders to engage in thoughtful, sensitive conversation on the topic of this geographic separation, what factors influence it and how to undo the damage that is caused by it.



I’ll have more to say on this in a few weeks. I’m working on a long-form post on the subject.

EDITED TO ADD: A Washington Post piece this week addresses the link between economic class and obesity. Here’s a good quote, emphasizing they way that the benefits of the healthy eating movement are exclusive to the wealthier classes: