Is Income and Racial Residential Segregation Associated with 13-Year Changes in Body Mass Index? A Longitudinal Analysis in the Brazilian Pró-Saúde Cohort Study.

Neighborhoods or residential environments have physical and social attributes which may contribute to inequalities in the overweight and obesity pandemic. We examined the longitudinal associations of baseline neighborhood-level income and racial residential segregation (using the Gi* statistic: low, medium, high) with changes in body mass index (BMI in kg/m), using geocoded data from 1821 civil servants in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, followed-up for approximately 13 years (baseline wave 1: 1999, wave 2: 2001-2002, wave 3: 2006-2007, wave 4: 2012-2013). Linear mixed effects models using BMI measured in all four study waves were performed, accounting for gender, race, length of residence, education and time-dependent age, and per capita family income.