Neighborhood-level racial residential segregation and sedentary behavior in US adults

Authors

• M Moniruzzaman
• Y Deng
• S Islam
• K Jones
• D Kerrigan
• CE Matthews
• K Tamura

Abstract

Introduction and Objective: Sedentary behavior (SB) is highly prevalent in United States (US) adults, spending an average of 9.5 hours/day sedentary, resulting in several negative health outcomes. Racial residential segregation may affect SB. We investigated whether neighborhood-level racial residential segregation is associated with sedentary time in a nationwide sample of US adults.
Methods: We analyzed data from 2637 US adults aged 20–75 years (mean age [45.1 years], Female [50.6%] from the population-based AmeriSpeak panel who completed the Activities Completed over Time in 24-hours (ACT24) previous-day recall in 2019. Total daily SB (hours/day) was assessed via ACT24 recalls. We quantified segregation using isolation index (range 0 to 1) at the county level for three racial/ethnic groups: Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults (ref White). A higher index value indicates higher segregation. We performed a weighted linear regression model to assess the relationship of isolation index with time spent in SB, adjusting for age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, household income, regions, and body mass index.
Findings: Counties with higher Black isolation were significantly associated with increased time spent in SB (β = 0.85, 95% confidence interval [0.28, 1.41], p = 0.004). We found similar results for Hispanic adults (β = 0.68, [0.08, 1.27], p = 0.027) and Asian adults with stronger association (β = 1.55, [0.45, 2.66], p = 0.007).
Conclusions: Those Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults residing in a racially segregated neighborhood from White adults were associated with longer sedentary time in this nationwide sample of US adults.

Scientific Focus Area: Epidemiology

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